Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad

Chapter Seventeen

Melodramatic Blubberbrains

Lily outsmarted her dreams. Instead of submitting herself to daily nightmares, she'd begun making a potion that induced dreamless sleep. It tasted awful, but waking up and tasting the potion was better than waking up and choking on tears.

The night of the Halloween Ball, however, she was so tired when she reached her rooms that she fell into bed without taking the potion, and dreams flooded her sleep.

Lily walked briskly down a narrow hallway, holding her skirts up in her hand to ease her passage. But no--Lily didn't walk. Lily didn't do anything.

She was having the dream again. The Not-Dream, where she sat helplessly in another woman's body and looked out through her eyes, without even a clue what the other woman was thinking. What was her name? Laurelle? That sounded right. Lily was stuck again in Laurelle's body.

Where was she going? She felt rushed--panicked, even--and Lily desperately wished she could hear Laurelle's thoughts. Am I still pregnant? Lily wondered. No, not me...her...is she still pregnant? She reached a narrow winding staircase and began to run upward. Judging from the speed of Laurelle's movements, she no longer had a baby swelling in her stomach. Unless, of course, Lily reasoned, this is before she became pregnant. Or...long after. And who's to say we're in the same mansion we were before? Maybe she's not even married yet...oh, that's sad...that man was very handsome.

Lily noticed at this point that she was carrying a rolled-up scroll in her right hand. The reason for this became apparent as soon as she reached the top of the staircase and opened the door to discover an Owlery. It was much smaller than the one at Hogwarts, but large for a personal collection; ten or so owls perched in the rafters. Laurelle hurried to a brown barn owl and tied the scroll to its leg, glancing anxiously over her shoulder before sending the owl on its way. "Take this to Patrick," she instructed, and then hurried across the Owlery to a door opposite the one she'd entered through.

Patrick! That was Laurelle's husband...wasn't it? So is she married then? Or...what? Lily wondered, as Laurelle hurried down a narrow staircase and through an even narrower passage. And why all the rush? Why the worry and the secrecy and...

"Ow!" Laurelle shrieked, running into someone as she re-entered the main hallway.

"There you are!" said the woman she'd run into. "What are you doing all the way up here? Not sending an owl, I hope."

"Of course not, dear sister," Laurelle lied. "I just wanted to be alone for a while, and you know the views from the North Tower are spectacular--"

"Laurelle, how can you be thinking about spectacular views at a time like this? Captain Pearce has been waiting for nearly half an hour!" Laurelle's sister was shorter and, Lily guessed, younger than Laurelle, with long brown curls and a dusting of freckles across her nose.

Laurelle's heart thumped alarmingly in her rib cage. "Captain Pearce? He's not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"

Laurelle, in shock, allowed her sister to drag her down the long corridor.

"Yes, well, apparently the High Courts have little consideration for our plans. The Captain said he made excellent time coming from London and didn't want to delay his visit. Apparently there are other places in the area he wishes to inspect, without prior warning."

"Why couldn't he have done that today instead of coming to pester us?" Laurelle demanded.

"He probably expected to find us all standing over a boiling cauldron in the kitchen whispering evil incantations and making a potion to smite him."

Laurelle snorted. "Please. Like I'd waste time and effort on potion-making to curse a Captain of the Guard. Hexes are much more efficient."

Laurelle's sister smiled at her as they began descending a long, winding staircase. "Your hexes are quite lovely."

"What can I say? It's a gift," she joked.

Her sister's face darkened a bit. "In times like these all magic's little more than a curse," she said bitterly.

"Oh, Charlotte," Laurelle said, stopping her sister as they reached the bottom of the staircase. "It will be all right. You'll see."

Charlotte shook her head and looked away. "You don't know that."

"When...when Patrick comes back, he will make everything all right again. I know it."

Charlotte looked back at Laurelle, sadness evident in her eyes. "Of course," she whispered, taking her sister's hand. "Come on. We don't want to keep the guard waiting."

Lily wondered at the sadness. Where was Patrick, that Laurelle had to send letters to him in secret and Charlotte looked so sad when Laurelle spoke of him?

"Wait," Laurelle said as they passed a mirror. "I want to make sure I look all right."

It was the first time Lily had seen Laurelle's face. She was lovely, with dark blonde hair pinned up in the back of her head and a fair, smooth complexion. Her eyes were a muddled sort of golden-brown, bright and intelligent and just a little sad. Lily suspected the sadness had something to do with Patrick. For all the references to Charlotte as her sister, however, Lily could find little similarity in their appearances. Actually, if memory served Lily right, Charlotte looked a bit more like Patrick than she did like Laurelle--so perhaps Charlotte was Patrick's sister, and Laurelle's sister-in-law, which would explain the girls' familiarity.

Lily was so intent on studying Laurelle's face that she almost missed the most important detail of all. As Laurelle turned away from the mirror, Lily saw a glint coming off the necklace around Laurelle's neck.

If Lily were in control of her own body, she would have fallen over in shock--or at least jerked back to the mirror to study her reflection further. Laurelle's necklace was a simple gold chain with a simple gold pendant dangling off it, in the shape of the letter "L"--the exact piece of jewelry that hung around Lily's own neck.

Remus found her. She didn't want to be found, and resisted his attempts to comfort her. Melody was in no mood for comfort. She didn't care about the ball, she didn't care about her dress, she didn't care about lying crumpled up on the floor of a deserted classroom, bawling, just so long as no one disturbed her.

"Melody," Remus said, attempting to touch her. She slapped his hand away and buried her face in her arms. She tried choking herself apart with sobs, but it didn't work. Her rib cage held, and instead of bursting apart she fell into a fit of coughing. Remus grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her up. Melody let out a strangled, annoyed sort of noise, but it didn't have much effect, as she was still coughing.

She sucked in a long, labored breath as soon as she could breathe, and just as quickly pushed it out again with a pitiful sob.

"Melody," Remus said again, a bit more sympathetically, searching through his pockets for some kind of useful cloth. He didn't own a handkerchief, so he didn't really know why he was searching, but he wasn't about to offer his sleeve to her. Normally he wouldn't have cared, but these dress robes didn't belong to him--he'd borrowed them from Sirius--so he didn't want to ruin them. Also, maybe Sirius owned a handkerchief. Or something. Anything. Melody was still blubbering and Remus was being useless, so he began searching more frankly, and eventually turned up several napkins he'd for some reason grabbed at the Ball.

"Here," he said, extending the napkins.

Melody took them and blew her nose, and within a minute the napkins were gone, crumpled into useless balls and discarded on the floor. Tears still leaked out of her eyes, and within another minute she was sniffing again. She glanced at Remus and shook her head. "Just go away, Moony. There's nothing you can d-do." She hiccupped.

"Maybe not, but I'd at least like to know what's going on."

Melody glared at him weakly. "D-do I look like I w-want to talk?"

"Sure you do! Why, you look so smashing I'd say you were preparing for an interview with the Daily Prophet!"

"Shutup, Moony," Melody grumbled, resting her head on her knees and hiding behind a curtain of hair. Remus could see the corners of her mouth twitching upward just slightly. "I look horrible," she insisted.

"Nah," Remus said after a moment, reaching over to push Melody's hair behind her ear.

"Don't try to make me laugh, Moony," she requested, turning her face toward him. "I really don't want to laugh right now."

"And why is that?"

Melody shook her head miserably. "I just--I just screwed everything up s-so h-h-horribly!" she cried, sobbing again.

Nice job, Remus told himself. He sighed resignedly. "Come on, Melody," he coaxed, trying not to sound too heartless. "You need to get up." He tugged at her arm, and Melody yanked it away.

"N--n--no! Go away!"

Remus sighed. "You have to get up. It's past curfew."

"Wh--what?" She hiccupped again.

"The ball's over. Come on."

"Oh, sod curfew! I'm n-not going." Melody curled up on the floor again. "Just leave me alone! There's n--nothing you can d--do anyway."

"I beg to differ," Remus said, yanking her up off the floor rather unceremoniously.

"OW!" Melody shrieked, more surprised than hurt.

"Shh! Stop carrying on. We have to get you out of here."

"No!" she shrieked again, backing away. "I am not going back to Gryffindor Tower, and you can't make me!"

"Well, who said anything about going there?" Remus demanded.

Melody hiccupped and stared at him, confused. "B--but you just said it's p-past curfew, and..."

"You thought I was going to be a goody-two-shoes and make you go to bed like you're supposed to?"

"Well...yeah."

"People always forget that I'm a Marauder, too," Remus said, looking at the ceiling. "It's just pathetic. I sneak out of the castle, I cause all kinds of trouble, explode Dungbombs everywhere, set mice loose in the Great Hall while the owls are coming in during breakfast, and still, it's never enough...everyone always thinks James and Sirius, James and Sirius, all the time, and I never get any credit. It's pathetic."

"Wait...the mice...that was...that was you?"

Remus looked at the ceiling again. "See what I mean? I try and I try, and it's just never good enough! Always living in the shadow of someone greater..."

"I thought that was James."

Remus looked at her. "Well, it was James, but it was my idea."

Melody shook her head at him. "Melodramatic blubberbrain, that's what you are."

Remus smiled. "Better than a hysterical crying prima donna."

"Watch it, Moony," Melody said, sniffing and attempting to wipe some of the tears off her face.

"Come on," he said, taking her by the arm. "Before Mrs. Norris comes by and rats us out."

"You know Peter hates that expression," Melody said, without thinking, as she allowed Remus to lead her from the classroom. Why had that popped into her head, of all things? She decided that it was better than crying over Sirius, though--at least for the moment--so she went with it. "He says it's derogatory to rats."

"Well, rats are derogatory creatures."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about Wormtail, you know."

Remus shrugged. "Just because I like Wormtail doesn't mean I have to like rats."

"I hear rats are the next big thing, you know."

"Really?"

"Yep. Everyone at Hogwarts next year's going to have a rat. 'S a good thing you're leaving, Moony, or you'd be very unpopular."

"Yeah," Remus agreed, unconcerned. "Poor Peter, though. He has to leave just as he's about to come into fashion. What a pity."

"Well, he wouldn't do much good at Hogwarts as a rat, now would he?"

"No, I expect not. It'd be a great way to meet girls, though."

"As a rat?"

"Well...you know...he's far too shy to meet them as a human."

Melody nearly laughed. "I suppose."

"Would you like to tickle it, or should I?" Remus asked, pointing to the pear. They'd reached the giant painting of fruit leading to the kitchens.

"You go ahead. I'm not in the mood."

Remus extended his finger and tickled the pear until a handle appeared, and they entered the kitchens together. Several house-elves scurried over as they entered, and Remus requested tea for both of them. Once they were seated and Melody had composed herself, Remus looked at her until she met his gaze.

"So what did you do?"

Melody stared at him for a moment, offended. "Oh, so right away it's all my fault, right? Like Sirius didn't do anything, and--"

"Hey, now! Wait a minute! You were the one who said you messed things up, remember? S-so h-h-h-h-hhhh-OOORibbly!" Remus re-enacted, pretending to sob.

Melody glared at him. "That's not funny, Moony. I'm miserable and all you're doing is mocking me."

"I'm sorry, Melody. It's just...well, don't you think you're being just a bit dramatic?"

Melody blinked and stared at him. She'd just ruined her friendship with Mimi and destroyed any and all possibilities of a relationship with the boy she'd been falling in love with for three years, and this was all Remus had to say about it? That she was being dramatic?

Melody felt like she'd just taken a knife and carved a piece of her own heart out, then thrown it to a nest of starving baby dragons, who'd deep-fried it before ripping it to shreds and making it disappear behind sharp, unforgiving fangs. If she weren't so busy hating herself for ruining her own life--in between hating Remus for being so un-understanding--she would have congratulated herself on her astounding imagery. All right, maybe it wasn't exactly astounding, but for the state of mind she was in it was still pretty remarkable.

Normally, Remus was very understanding and kind and...not a complete insensitive jerk when it came to other people's feelings. As if Melody hadn't been feeling bad enough already, sobbing on the floor of a classroom, Remus had to drag her to her feet and to the kitchens for this?

"Fuck you, Moony," she said finally, uttering the worst word she could think of. "You don't have a goddamn clue what you're talking about."

Remus took this insult in with a nod, and took a drink of his tea before responding. "Let me take a wild guess. You confessed your feelings to Sirius, and he rejected you?"

Well...maybe Remus kind of had a clue what he was talking about.

"It's not that simple, Moony," she snapped, taking a sip of her own tea, slamming the cup back to the saucer with a sharp clatter.

"Ah. You confessed your feelings to Sirius, and then he didn't reject you, and then Mimi found out?"

All right, Remus was pretty good at guessing, but he wasn't exactly spot-on, and he was still downplaying the whole affair with more insensitivity than Melody would have liked. "Remus, I really don't think you understand what--"

"I bet Mimi walked in on you."

Melody faltered. He was getting better at this whole 'guessing' thing. "Look, Moony, I--"

"She did, didn't she? I bet you were kissing him or something, weren't you?"

Melody stared Remus, and then glanced at his drink. Did he put some kind of special mind-reading potion in that tea when she wasn't paying attention?

"Well...I...Moony, you know I--" She cut herself off for a moment, fuming at Remus's newfound accuracy.

"I mean, I never meant for Mimi to..." she continued, searching for words.

"He"--but no, that didn't sound right--"no, I...I just...."

Emotion seized Melody's throat and tightened it. Tears popped into her eyes, hot and fresh and blurry. The events ran through her mind again, so fiercely that she didn't notice Remus requesting a pile of napkins from the house-elves. The napkins were there, though, when the emotions ebbed and her nose was red and stuffy again.

Remus waited patiently for her to clear her eyes and her nose and take a few sips of tea. Melody grabbed a new napkin and dabbed at her eyes again and then held on to the napkin for no reason other than her need to fiddle with something.

After a moment she spoke again, softly, but clearly and with more composure.

"It wasn't just what happened, Moony. It was the way I let Mimi down. How I avoided and ignored her, and then stabbed her in the back the first chance I got. And the way I've treated Sirius. I...I should've done something sooner, and this wasn't fair, this wasn't right. I just...needed to say something before he had to go. I didn't mean to say what I ended up saying...it's just what came out...and...then I couldn't run away from it anymore. And...."

Melody felt a bit foolish, confessing the next bit to Remus. He was a boy, after all, and she didn't share with the Marauders what she did with Lily...but still, she might not see Lily before she left, and Remus would still be here, and it was Remus she'd need to talk to. "...I don't know. I just needed to kiss him again."

Her heart thumped extra-hard with the memory. Sirius's lips were warm and soft and smooth, and slid so easily against hers, and his tongue...well, maybe she shouldn't be thinking about that right now, not in front of Remus anyway. Not that it was indecent or anything...but it wasn't as though Remus needed to know about Sirius's tongue, either. "Anyway..." she continued.

Remus, who was not usually exposed to this kind of girl-talk, shifted in his chair and drank some more tea, wishing briefly that he'd opted for butterbeer or pumpkin juice instead. For some reason the cup and saucer before him were making him feel a bit too...well, feminine...even though they weren't particularly girly in appearance, and no different than the ones his mum had served him tea in at home...in fact, the ones at home had little pink flowers on them, and he'd never thought twice about his manliness while drinking out of one. That struck him as odd, but he probably should have been listening to Melody instead of thinking about teacups, so he tried to stop focusing on pink flowers and manliness. He reached across the table and put his hand on hers, and her speech halted.

"You can't change what happened, Melody."

"I know," she replied, avoiding his gaze. "But that doesn't make me feel any better about it."

Lily woke early and said a very long good-bye to James, hidden in a small alcove off one of the fourth-floor passageways. It was a particular favorite of theirs, as it was furnished with a cozy, padded bench, and not once had anyone disturbed them there. Plus it was easy to slip in and out of without anyone noticing, and provided an excellent place for them to duck into when they wanted to...chat...between classes.

They were doing the same sort of chatting this morning. Their mouths were doing a lot of work, anyway.

Lily wanted to say good-bye to him eventually, of course, but that sort of thing could be done outside the Great Hall, or just before they split up to go their separate ways for training, and Lily did not want to spoil their time alone with words.

James had his arms wrapped around her tightly, and his hands were not tangling themselves up in her hair as usual. In response Lily found her hands cradling James's face rather than exploring his chest or slipping themselves around his neck.

This said more to Lily than any amount of words. James was adorably protective at times...but this was different. Now, she thought, he wasn't so much protective as he was sorry to see her go. Not forever, of course, but four weeks was a long time, and among other things, Lily could tell he would miss their...chats.

Lily was not immune to sadness at the thought of separation, either. She loved kissing James. And being kissed by him. It occupied a good portion of her free time, and thoughts of it plagued her mind even when her time was not free. Kissing was not all they did, of course, but it was the most enjoyable of their activities, and Lily felt slightly distressed when she thought of not being able to engage in this activity for a month. She figured now would be a good time to stock up on kisses. She used her hands and mouth to guide him to the kind of kisses she enjoyed most--long, slow, involved ones that made her heart thump extra-slow, like it was missing beats, and then thump extra-fast to make up for the ones it missed.

James finished one of these kisses and pulled away slowly, his lips in no hurry to leave hers, but leaving nonetheless. Lily's lips were red and puffy, in the best way, by the time they'd finished, and she refused to open her eyes, unwilling to pull herself away from the sensations. James's lips found hers several more times, briefly, before he tightened his arms about her, pulling her to his chest.

Lily relaxed against him easily, dropping her hands from his face and slipping them about his torso. She took deep, slow breaths until her heart returned to its normal speed, spiking every so often when James kissed the top of her head, or stroked her hair, or made soft, slow circles on her back with his thumb.

Lily wondered sometimes if maybe this was what it was like to be in love, but she always second-guessed herself. She didn't trust teenagers and their relationships...didn't trust the idea of love...mostly, though, she didn't trust herself to handle losing anyone she loved again. If she didn't love anyone, then she couldn't lose them.

These thoughts weren't helping. Lily buried her face into James's chest and tried to push her thoughts away. James rested his head on top of hers.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lily replied, muffled.

"You sure?"

"Mm," Lily replied, noncommittally, but she tightened her arms around James. He kissed the top of her head.

"Lil?" he said, pulling away and tugging gently at her chin, trying to peer into her face. Lily was reluctant to loosen her hold. She slipped her arms from his waist to his neck, wedging herself against him. James sighed and pulled her into his lap. "That better?" he asked, and Lily nodded, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "Lily, I want to look at you," James informed her, sounding a bit exasperated. Lily let out a small, unhelpful grunt and didn't move. James toyed with the ends of her hair. "I'm not going to see you for a month."

"Mmhm," Lily agreed, turning her head to the side and kissing the curve of his neck. She smiled as she felt the whisper of goose bumps spreading across his skin, and kissed his neck again, a little bit higher. Her kisses trailed up his neck and along his jaw, then hopped over his mouth to his nose. "Okay," she whispered. "You can look at me now."

James closed his eyes and kissed her. Lily smiled to herself and kissed him back. "Not interested in looking anymore?" she teased, pulling away. James glared at her. Lily sighed. "Some people are so touchy," she commented to no one, tracing her finger along James's cheek.

"I was going to say something," James informed her.

"Really now? And what were you going to say?"

"Something having to do with good-bye. But it was stupid."

"It was?"

"Yep. Not worth saying."

"And why is that, James?" Lily asked, cocking her head.

"Because this is so much more effective," he said, and kissed her again.

"Ooh," Lily said, pulling away momentarily. "That was a good line, James."

James grinned. "I know."

Lily laughed. "Well as long as you're modest about it..."

"You're not dating me because I'm modest."

"No?"

"No. You're dating me because..."

"Because you look so smashing in a pair of trousers?" Lily suggested.

James grinned again. "Well, there is that."

"What else is there?" Lily joked.

"My astounding Quidditch abilities?"

Lily considered. "Nah. If I wanted that in a relationship, I would've gone to Sirius."

James's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, really?" he demanded, and then he began tickling her.

Lily shrieked with laughter. "All right, all right! I was just kidding!"

"You better be kidding," James said, just a little bit sulkily.

"Aw," Lily said, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing their faces very close together. "I was just kidding, James."

"I know," James said, sounding less sulky.

"And I am going to miss you," she informed him.

"I know," he said again.

"I guess we already talked about that."

"Uh-huh," James agreed, leaning over to kiss her again.

Lily responded easily, her lips familiar against James's, and well worn into practice this morning after almost an hour of good-byes.

A small beep came from behind James's head, and Lily realized it was her wristwatch going off. She groaned and pulled away from James. "No," she moaned, looking at the time. "It can't be seven already."

James, utterly deflated, plopped his head on Lily's shoulder and refused to move for several minutes.

"We have to go, James."

"No we don't," James insisted. "You don't have to run off and send a stupid owl. You could stay here with me a bit longer."

"James," Lily said again, more insistently. The owl was for her cousin in America, with whom she'd been keeping up correspondence ever since the funeral. She didn't know if she'd have a chance at mailing it during Auror Training, so she thought it was best to send the letter off this morning. It was all rather complicated, really, as Molly was a Muggle.

Lily had to send the letter to her mum, who then had to put stamps on it and mail it to Molly, and when Molly sent a letter back she couldn't actually send it to the Potter's house because they didn't have a mailbox, so she sent it to a Muggle Post Office a good half-hour drive from Potter's Cottage. Lily didn't usually get Molly's letters for a week or two after they arrived in England, and sometimes James actually got Lily's letters from Molly, accompanying a letter from his mum, since Lily and James's parents were all occupying the same house. Which was all very weird, really, if Lily stopped to think about it--so usually she tried not to think about it.

Eventually James acquiesced. "All right, all right." he said, reluctantly. "I know." He was silent for a few moments as Lily ran her hands through his hair. "I really will miss you, Lily-bean," he managed finally, lifting his head.

Lily smiled and kissed him softly, and then she slid off his lap and stood. "And I'll miss you."

James stood, wrapping his arms around her one more time. "It won't be so long," he reasoned. "We'll have a lot to keep ourselves occupied."

"It's going to stink, though," Lily added, matter-of-factly, "since I won't be able to kiss you for a month."

James laughed. "As long as you're willing to admit it," he said, and kissed her one more time, and then they parted.

Mimi didn't get to say good-bye to Lily. She'd meant to, she really had, but she wasn't quite up for it. She didn't even wake up until well past noon, her eyes crusted shut with dry tears, her body exhausted from dancing and screaming and crying, her brain still soggy with emotional sewage.

Because that's what it was. That's what Sirius had dumped on her. Emotional sewage.

Convenient for him, too, wasn't it? The bastard. Cheat on your girlfriend one night and then leave her to rot while you prance about doing bloody Auror Training for a month. Sounded like a great plan to Mimi. It must've sounded wonderful to Sirius when he thought it up.

Of course, Mimi wasn't sure how much of it had been Sirius's idea or how much of it Melody's, or how long it had been going on, or how many other people knew about it. And worst of all, one of the few people she really wanted to talk about it with had left on a train at eight o'clock this morning. She suspected some of the other girls in her dormitory would find out about it sooner or later, but Mimi had been the first one to bed last night and had kept her crying quiet until she was sure everyone else had fallen asleep. Then she'd tiptoed out of bed and to the common room, where, despite her best efforts, she'd sobbed until she was sure the whole House could hear her--but no one came. Not Susie or Matt and certainly not Lily, who was among the last to reach the dormitories and surely so soundly asleep not even Peeves could have woken her. So Mimi cried alone, and she expected she'd spend the next four weeks alone, depressed and brooding and full of emotional sewage.

She would have been very hurt to find out about Remus's several-hour-long chat with Melody in the kitchens, but the only people who knew about that were the house-elves, and they weren't going to tell anybody--except perhaps Dumbledore.

Until morning Mimi didn't think of talking to Remus. She'd spend most of the night cursing Sirius and Melody and then all of Gryffindor in general, forgetting that there was still Remus to confide her trauma to. He might not care...or he might be on Melody's side...but then, no. He was Remus, and much too sensible to take sides. Or perhaps too spineless. Certainly too spineless to ask Mimi for a date.

Mimi teetered back and forth like this, between adoring Remus and hating him, until her stomach grumbled angrily in protest. But Mimi didn't feel like getting up for food, because she didn't want to chance seeing Melody. Instead she rolled over and burrowed into her covers, forcing herself into an uneasy sleep.

Lily was on the Hogwarts Express. It felt very wrong to be on the Hogwarts Express, what with most of the cars missing and no other students besides the three other Auror Training candidates aboard. There was only one car attached to the engine car, and they were rattling along the tracks a bit faster than usual, but not dangerously so. Each of the Training candidates had snagged a compartment of their own, and Fletcher Hawkes occupied a fifth, but the rest were eerily empty. Lily had done a cursory inspection of the car just after they left Hogsmeade station, partly to determine where everyone was sitting and partly out of habit, and it was odd to see several of the compartments completely empty--especially as they were using the Prefect compartments, which were slightly roomier and cushier than the normal ones.

Lily had slept a bit coming out of Hogsmeade, but now it was past noon and she was both hungry and wide awake. She stared out the window for a few minutes, wondering if they were going to have lunch, before deciding that it was very boring sitting in a train car alone, and she decided to visit with Sirius, who, if he wasn't asleep, would be better company than her trunk.

As soon as she slid open her compartment door and stepped into the hallway, she ran into Fletcher Hawkes, who was distributing sandwiches and pumpkin juice.

"Thank you," Lily said, feeling a bit clumsy as she accepted her meal.

"Save one of the sandwiches for later," Fletcher advised. "We've got a long way til London yet."

"All right."

Fletcher turned to walk away and then stopped, turning back to Lily. "Oh--and your blonde friend, in that compartment," he added, indicating Sally Parkinson's compartment, "I put a Silencing Charm on her. She was snoring so loud I couldn't concentrate. Make sure you take it off when she wakes up, and don't bother me about it, because I'll be busy."

"All--all right, sir," Lily replied, stifling a laugh as he walked away.

"Don't call me 'sir,'" Fletcher called over his shoulder. "'Fletcher' or 'Hawkes' will work just fine." He disappeared into his compartment before Lily could reply.

Laughing, she stumbled into Sirius's compartment and plopped down on the seat across from him. "Did you hear that?" she asked, and went on before Sirius could reply. "Fletcher Hawkes put a Silencing Charm on Sally because she was snoring so loud!" Lily collapsed in a fit of giggles before recovering and realizing that Sirius was just staring out the window, his face stony and his food untouched. Lily blinked and stared at him for a moment, her laughter gone.

"Sirius?" she ventured. "You okay?"

Sirius turned his head and looked at her blankly. He shrugged and turned back to the window.

"You feeling all right? You haven't touched your food. You do know there's food, right?"

Sirius glanced over at his sandwiches and shrugged again before returning his gaze to the window.

"Oh, come on, Sirius. Whatever it is, it can't be that bad. You don't have the stomach flu or anything, do you?"

Sirius shook his head.

"For the love of Pete, Sirius, stop being dramatic. Eat something and tell me what's going on."

Sirius considered her for a moment, and then shrugged and picked up a sandwich. Even if he was the worst boyfriend ever to walk the face of the earth and depressed beyond all reason, it was no reason to starve to death. He took a generous bite of ham and cheese and followed it with a nice swig of pumpkin juice. He didn't expect to actually feel better because of this, but he did, almost instantly. Huh, Sirius thought. No wonder girls eat a lot when they're depressed.

"Ffo?" Lily asked, working her mouth around the peanut butter in her own sandwich. "Whassa matter?" she managed, rather thickly.

Sirius took another bite of sandwich and thought for a moment how to best explain it. Considering he was talking to Lily, who understood the situation probably better than he did, it wouldn't be too difficult to sum up.

"Well, if we're going to go with the 'straight-facts-no-bullshit' version...I hate Melody. Oh, and I hate myself, too. I should be thrown out of the window of this train...and then shot," he added thoughtfully.

"I thought you were going for the 'no bullshit' version."

"All right, maybe that was a little elaborate. I don't really want to be thrown out of the window of this train. But...I deserve to be."

"Sirius, are you on your period?"

"What?"

"You sound like a hormonal teenage girl. Snap out of it."

Sirius ran through some things in his head. "You know, I've been called a lot of bad names, Lily, but I don't think I've ever been called a hormonal teenage girl before."

"That's probably a good sign," Lily reasoned. "So, as Sirius, and not as a hormonal teenage girl, would you mind telling me what's going on?"

Sirius considered this, and stalled by biting off a particularly large chunk of his sandwich, nearly biting off one of his own fingers in the process. This whole 'eating' thing was much more dangerous than people made it out to be.

Lily waited expectantly.

"All right," Sirius said finally. "But I'm probably going to sound like a hormonal teenage girl no matter what, because this whole thing was brought on by two hormonal teenage girls."

"And yourself of course," Lily prompted. "Since you deserve to be thrown out of the train window. And then shot," she added quickly, before Sirius could.

"Right," Sirius agreed, pausing to think things over before continuing. "I told Mimi I was going to stop mooning over Melody, and that she should stop mooning over Remus, and that we should take an honest stab at our relationship instead of just...pretending at it. And then at the ball Melody asked me if I wanted to go talk somewhere, so we went to a deserted classroom, and she told me that she loved me, and then she kissed me and Mimi walked in on us. And...I think that's all. Mimi was real mad though. I bet you can imagine."

Lily's eyes were very wide. "All...right," she said, pausing for a moment to process this information. "Well, the bit with you and Mimi taking an honest stab at your relationship I didn't really see coming, but the rest of it I kind of did."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "What, did Melody plan this or something?"

"No," Lily said, shaking her head. "Melody may be a stupid hormonal teenager, but she's not mean. She'd never have put herself in this situation on purpose."

"Well then how did you know it was coming?"

"Because I knew how Melody felt about you," Lily reminded him, taking a drink of her pumpkin juice. "And so do you, if I recall. James told you Melody was lying to you. Why you ever decided to go out with Mimi in the first place is beyond me."

"Well see, that's part of the reason I deserve to be thrown out of this train window and shot," he said, and told Lily about he and James's failed plan to make Melody jealous.

Lily groaned. "Sirius...are you serious?"

Sirius shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"All right, first of all, when we get back to Hogwarts remind me that I want to wring James's neck for thinking of such an idiotic plan. Second--Sirius, are you completely daft?" Lily yelled, throwing her unwrapped sandwich at him. He cringed for a moment before realizing she was throwing food at him, and then, because he'd finished his own sandwich, he unwrapped Lily's and bit into it happily. "Sirius!" she shrieked. "That sandwich is supposed to be for later."

"Oh well, too late now," Sirius reasoned, taking another bite. Lily glared at him and snatched his other sandwich away before he could eat that, too.

"Second," Lily repeated, glaring, "why, of all the girls at Hogwarts, did you have to pick Mimi?"

Sirius chewed and thought about this for a moment. "Well," he said finally, "she was the only other girl I really knew. I mean--yeah, I know Kim and Lorelei and Arabella...and Susie and Noelle and Christine and Izzy...and Emily and Holly and Sarah...and Pauline and Lia and Arista and Cassie and--"

"All right, I get the picture," Lily interrupted. "You know lots of girls. So why not pick one of them?"

"Well...I mean, they're great and all, but I dated a lot of them in Fourth Year, and that just wasn't fun, and besides if I started dating one of them this year it'd look really suspicious, don't you think? Without any kind of...I don't know...preliminary...whatever?"

Lily raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, because you and Mimi wasn't just totally out of the blue."

"At least I could carry on a conversation with her," Sirius pointed out. "It was better than asking out some random Hufflepuff."

Lily thought about this until it almost made sense. "All right, but...why, Sirius? What made you think that this was ever going to work?"

"Well...it did, didn't it?" Sirius pointed out. "Melody told me she loved me and then she kissed me. I mean...that was good."

"Except for the part where you were cheating on your girlfriend who you actually happened to like."

"Yeah, that part didn't work out so well," Sirius agreed.

"Of course, I also don't get why Mimi decided she wanted to go out with you."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh...I don't know, Sirius."

"I mean...aren't I devilishly handsome and witty and charming and utterly smashing on the Quidditch pitch and smart and refined and--"

"Shut up, Sirius."

"Sorry. It's just that when I get going on my attributes it's awfully hard to stop."

"Well at least you're not being a hormonal teenage girl anymore."

"Hey, that is cheerful, isn't it? I'm in the mood for a snack! D'you want some Cauldron Cakes?"

"You have Cauldron Cakes?"

"Sure!" Sirius said, and began digging through his trunk.

"Where did you get Cauldron Cakes?"

"From Hogs--Hogwarts," Sirius said quickly. "Before we left."

Lily raised her eyebrow doubtfully but accepted a Cauldron Cake. "Raid the kitchens or something?" she asked.

"Or something," Sirius agreed, grinning.

Sirius really was devilishly handsome, Lily noted, biting into her cake. Too bad she was dating James, or she might somehow have been able to get in on the Sirius-romance-drama. She took another bite of cake and thought about this some more before realizing how ridiculous it was, and snorted in laughter. Sirius gave her a very odd look.

"Um...feeling all right there, Miss Piggy?"

"Oh, stuff it, Sirius," Lily said, still buried in her thoughts. She'd backtracked a bit by now and was kind of stuck on the spot where she casually mentioned she was dating James. Her lips curled up happily.

"Now what are you thinking about?" Sirius demanded. "You can't just sit there and think about things when you're in the company of someone else, Lily-bean. It's very rude."

"Haven't we discussed, many times, how I feel about the name 'Lily-bean'?"

"I never hear you protest when James calls you Lily-bean."

"Well, that's a bit different, isn't it, since James is my..."

"Your what, Lily-bean?"

Lily glared at him for a moment before finishing. "...my boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend? No kidding?" Sirius said, slightly surprised.

"Yep," Lily replied, trying not to feel embarrassed.

"You finally made it official?"

"Um...yeah."

"And you're willing to admit this?"

"Uh-huh."

"To the general public, even?"

"All right, Sirius."

"You're not going to deny it anymore?"

"Sirius."

"You're not going to slap him across the face when he tries to smooch you?"

"Sirius..."

"What about--"

"SIRIUS!"

"Yes, Lily-bean?"

"That's enough. And stop calling me that."

"Whatever you say, Lily-bean."

Remus could not believe this. He figured once James, Sirius, and Lily were safely out of Hogwarts, all their melodramatic teenage issues would disappear with them, and he'd finally have some peace and quiet. Instead, he was sitting on the couch in MHQ watching Mimi bawl her eyes out. Somehow, this scene was startlingly familiar.

This time Remus was well prepared with tissues. At least, he thought he was well-prepared with tissues. A whole box for one crying girl certainly seemed like a sufficient amount...but Mimi was going through the tissues at an alarming rate. Only ten minutes had passed and already she'd filled two rubbish bins and emptied at least half of the box.

"I'm s--sorry," Mimi managed at one point. "You d--don't need to b--b--be here for all thi--i--is."

Remus patted her back awkwardly. "That may be true, but you don't need to be alone for all this either."

Mimi's crying halted for a moment and she looked at him. "You're so n--n--n--nice!" she blubbered, losing her composure.

Oh crap, Remus thought. Here we go again. Why do they always burst into tears when I think I've found something nice and innocent to say?

Mimi wailed for a few minutes longer and then composed herself again. Well, maybe composed wasn't exactly the right word, Remus noted, as Mimi picked up the box of tissues and hurled it across the room angrily.

"I'm such an idiot!" she fumed, her eyes still damp with tears. "Wasting all this time over stupid S--S--Sirius!" She took a few heaving breaths and then shook her head angrily, swiping at her tears roughly with the sleeves of her robe. "You think I'm being an idiot, don't you?" she asked, turning her gaze on Remus.

Remus blinked and thought furiously for something non-incriminating to say. Was "no" the right answer? Would she accuse him of lying? What about "maybe"? Was that safe? Or would she be offended that maybe he did think she was being an idiot? And "yes" was definitely out of the question...wasn't it? Unless of course...

"I think you're being a normal teenage girl," he said suddenly, wondering which part of his brain that answer had sprung from.

"I guess," Mimi replied, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them. "It just wouldn't be so bad if..." she glanced at Remus. "Never mind. You don't want to hear about it."

You're right, Remus agreed. Especially since I heard the whole thing from Melody last night...about five times.... Would it help if I told you how horrible Melody feels about the whole thing? He looked at Mimi for a minute, considering. No. Probably not.

He failed to notice the expression on Mimi's face. She stared at him with wide eyes, looking slightly hurt that he hadn't immediately protested against her suggestion that he didn't want to hear her problems, and then she blinked and slid her gaze away from his.

"I...I don't mean to impose," she said again, tremulously. "I should...probably be going now anyway."

Thank goodness, Remus thought, but little warning bells were going off in the back of his head. "No," he said finally, his Emergency Idiot Prevention system kicking in. "You should stay. There's obviously a lot on your mind."

Mimi looked grateful and sank back into the couch. She started speaking, and Remus zoned out a bit. Occasionally he caught snippets of her monologue, but mostly it sounded like Melody's speeches last night, except Mimi seemed to be more of a victim than a...victimizer? Was that the right word?

Remus was beginning to think that maybe girls were more trouble than they were worth. Sure, he liked Mimi and all, but he wasn't quite sure he could even handle Mimi. What was wrong with everybody, anyway? It was just Hogwarts. They were just teenage relationships. It wasn't as though any of them were going to go off and get married or anything.... Remus was quite sure that within a month, Mimi would fully recover and be going out with some fabulous new boyfriend, and Sirius and Melody would patch up whatever problems they were having, and the whole world would continue as though none of this ever happened. Did Remus even want to bother with one of these relationships?

He thought about this for a moment, and then realized he was being stupid. Even if relationships were pointless, they looked like fun. Sometimes. Not right now, obviously. But if he was going to date someone, maybe he should pick someone besides Mimi. Someone who looked...less emotionally volatile. Of course...generally he didn't consider Mimi or Melody emotionally volatile, so maybe any relationship could do this to any girl, no matter who they were. That thought was kind of disturbing.

Should he be listening to Mimi? He zoned back in for a second to see what she was talking about.

"You're a really good listener, you know," Mimi said quietly, staring at the fire. "Unlike Sirius 'Smooch-Me' Black," she added darkly. That set her off again.

Nope. Not important. Remus zoned out again. Mimi was really fairly attractive. And who said he had to bother with telling her about all this 'werewolf' business, anyway? And he wouldn't want to smooch her all the time if she were his girlfriend. Normally he did enjoy talking to her. Just...not right now. Right now was obviously a bad time to start some kind of relationship with her. He wondered why he'd been so obtuse about relationships before. The 'getting together' part couldn't be that complicated. Not if the 'breaking up' part was so elaborate, anyway. It didn't seem fair for both of those to be complicated.

What was Mimi talking about now? She seemed kind of angry.

"...not fair to use me just to get Melody to like him, I mean what kind of pigheaded male attitude is that, and...never mind if I kind of thought I might be able to do the same thing to get--" Mimi looked up at Remus for a split second before falling into a fit of coughing. "Never mind," she said quickly. "It's not important."

Remus raised his eyebrows at her but didn't say anything.

"You know...it's been nice talking to you, Remus. But...I should probably be going now."

Really? That was it? Well, that wasn't so hard! Remus thought cheerfully. Thankfully, his Idiot Prevention system again took hold before he could say anything stupid. "Are you sure?"

Mimi looked at him and smiled weakly. "Yeah. But thanks for listening."

"No problem," Remus replied, and wondered whether or not he was lying.

"I'll--I'll see you around," Mimi said, and made her way to the door.

"Bye," Remus called as she left. He fell over on the couch in relief when she was gone.

Was this what Lily had to deal with all the time? How did girls do it? It hadn't even been a whole day since Lily left for Auror Training and already Remus was tired of girl talk.

The door to MHQ opened and Remus closed his eyes, sending a silent prayer to whatever god might be listening that it wasn't Melody walking through the door. He sat up and peeked over the back of the couch, then collapsed again in relief. It was Peter.

"Hey, Remus!" Peter said, sitting in the chair next to the fire. "How are you?"

"Eh," Remus replied. "I've been better."

"It's not...that time of the month, is it?" Peter asked nervously, shifting in his chair, wondering how he was supposed to handle this alone.

"Just ended," Remus said, looking at him oddly. "Don't you remember last week, Peter?"

"Oh...yeah," Peter replied, looking sheepish. "Sorry. It just...seems like a long time ago. With Padfoot and Prongs leaving and all. And the ball last night."

Remus couldn't argue with that.

"So," Peter continued when Remus didn't reply, "what are we going to do with them gone?"

It had not occurred to Remus that they were going to do anything while James and Sirius were gone, nor that Peter would expect him to come up with something inventive. Despite his professions to Melody last night about how brilliant he was at coming up with pranks, he really didn't feel up to pulling any right now.

"Behave?" Remus suggested, and Peter looked at him blankly. Remus sighed. "Tell you what, Wormtail. How about you think up some pranks and run them by me and we'll see if we can pull any of them off without James and Sirius here."

Peter perked visibly at this idea. Rarely was he asked to think of anything; he just helped carry things out. "All right," he agreed. "And...when I'm done with that, would you mind giving me a hand with this Transfiguration essay?"

"The one about human Transfiguration?"

"Yeah."

"Peter, you're an Animagus."

"I know. That's the problem," Peter said. "I've written it three times already, and every time I accidentally referred to myself as an Animagus at least once."

Remus laughed. "Work on the prank list first," he suggested. "I'm going to go get some food."

"Grab a bite for me, would you?" Peter asked, apparently unwilling to move from his brainstorming spot.

"All right," Remus agreed before leaving. He doubted Peter had paid attention to the language he just used.

Remus, on the other hand, made a point to never mention that he was going to take a bite out of anything.

James plopped down by the fire, utterly spent. Moody was not a lenient instructor, and James had spent most of the day running around collecting things, inspecting things, or 'lying low' and waiting for...things. There was a lot more 'lying low' than James had anticipated. Moody, however, felt that this was a highly important part of Auror Training, and made all of the students find secluded spots to hide in and wait around until Moody found them. Kind of like hide-and-seek, but with a purpose. Moody was very good at seeking, as it turned out. The first few times James hid anywhere, Moody found him within a matter of minutes, pointing out all the things wrong with his hiding spot that James had never considered before.

The third time James hid, he thought he'd had himself covered. He was well within the depths of a thick, only somewhat prickly bush that provided excellent cover from all directions, which he could hear and kind of see from, with almost three hundred and sixty degrees of visibility (if he tried to view the whole three-sixty, he'd eventually bump into the bush and make it move). He had enough space to crouch so that he didn't feel overly confined and wiggle about constantly. Overall, James was very proud of his bush selection.

Moody found him almost instantly.

"Too obvious," he growled, hauling James out by the neck of his shirt and depositing him on the ground.

"But--that was the perfect hiding bush!" James sputtered, pulling some leaves out of his hair.

"I know," Moody replied, "but you have to learn to hide in places that aren't already perfect, and make them perfect."

James really didn't get it, but he tried anyway. He tried trees, he tried boulders, he tried small unobtrusive caves, but there was something wrong with each of them.

"No place to run if you're caught...too easy to sneak up on...good for hiding, but too hard to leave without being noticed."

James had to resist the very strong urge to turn into a stag and run around for a while, and let Moody try and figure out where he'd gone, but he thought maybe Moody was smart enough to figure out that James was an Animagus, and he didn't want to take that chance.

Thankfully the day was over now, and James was very glad to be by the fire, just...sitting.

"How'd you do?" Frank Longbottom asked, plopping down next to James, looking equally exhausted and very dirt-stained.

"Not so good," James replied. "You?"

"Really bad. He found me every time. Really fast, too."

"Yeah," James agreed, "me too."

"Yeah?" Frank asked, perking a bit. "Well, at least I'm not alone."

They heard shouts coming from woods to the West, where the sun was beginning to set, and James and Frank glanced at each other before shaking their heads.

"Adam and Vivian?" Frank ventured.

"Yep," James agreed.

A few minutes later, a blonde, angry Ravenclaw boy and a furious, red-headed Slytherin girl stomped into the campsite, accompanied by a very annoyed Alastor Moody. "Sit down and shut up!" Moody advised, disappearing into his tent.

Vivian and Adam glared at each other for a minute before Vivian turned away from him with a haughty flip of her hair, crossing her arms and glowering unnecessarily at the pine trees. Adam stared darkly at the fire.

James, unperturbed, shrugged and tossed another log on the fire.

"I take it you two didn't have much luck either," Frank said, rather cheerily.

"Shut up," Vivian snapped. "No one asked you to talk."

"Yeah, but no one told me to shut up, either," he pointed out, smiling. Vivian stared at him icily until he fidgeted uncomfortably. She smirked and turned her attention back to the pine trees, bored with her game. Frank tossed another log on the fire with slightly more force than necessary, and sparks flew in Vivian's direction. She shrieked, waving at the embers with her hand, and Moody reappeared.

"I thought I told you to shut up," he growled, and Vivian was immediately silent. "You have a lot to work on," he informed them, sitting. He tossed bags of food at each of them, along with new, shiny flasks filled with water. "Keep those flasks with you at all times. Never let someone else fill your flask for you. You never know what they might try to slip in."

He didn't speak after that, and neither did the students, feeling tired and hungry and slightly ill-at-ease. They ate in silence. When they'd finished, Moody spoke again.

"Tomorrow we've got something new to work on," he informed them. "Then we'll get back to Cloaking and Disguises."

He left, and the students sat around for a few more minutes, staring at the fire. "Well, I'm tired," James said finally. "I'm going to bed."

The other students grumbled their agreement, and headed for the tent. Vivian realized, suddenly, that she'd have to share her sleeping space with three boys, and screeched in annoyance. This was a bad move on her part. Moody, who was just about to fall asleep, heard her, and stomped outside to put a Silencing Charm on her before glaring at them all and retreating to his tent. The boys all thought this was tremendously funny, especially as Moody had confiscated all their wands the second they finished using the Portkey to travel to...wherever they were (in the mountains somewhere), so Vivian couldn't take the spell off.

Vivian, silently raging, managed to keep the boys outside long enough to change and push her cot into a remote corner of the tent. When she finally allowed the boys to enter, Adam chose the cot farthest from Vivian, and James and Frank took the remaining two, trying to ignore Adam's and Vivian's dramatics.

If they're going to be like this the whole time, James thought before drifting off to sleep, it's going to be a very long four weeks.

Linda Sharp felt lonely. Normally she didn't; normally she wasn't aware enough of her surroundings to even register loneliness. She just shuffled around, consumed with her thoughts, feeling hollow and shell-like and not really caring if anybody noticed her.

Maybe that was why she wasn't very concerned about Wendy deserting her to hang out with a group of girls who, until this year, both Wendy and Lin had detested fully. She only cared during moments like these, when she felt aware of everything, as well as...somewhat normal. As normal as she ever was, anyway.

In moments like these it was much harder to concentrate on Potions homework.

In her dull, shell-like, mechanical state, she just did things without thinking about them, and her homework always got done, even if she didn't quite remember doing it and couldn't always come up with the right answers on the tests. This was a relatively new phenomenon, actually. Since the beginning of the year, her hollowness and loneliness had prompted her to throw herself into her studies, and her marks had actually been quite good.

Lately, however...there'd been something more going on when she got that hollow, shell-like feeling. Something she didn't like to think about when she was feeling relatively normal.

Lin turned her attentions back to her studies.

She stared at her Potions book, completely baffled. Had she made a Sleeping Draught recently? Was she supposed to know about its aftereffects? Who cared if there was Mandrake Root in it anyway, and why was that a paradox? What was a paradox? Did Professor Thorne word his essay questions this way on purpose? Lin groaned and let her head fall on the table, her hair narrowly missing an open inkwell.

She'd only been sitting this way a few seconds before it started to seep in. It was the feeling she got when she was turning shell-like.

No, Lin moaned inwardly, not again. Not now.

She didn't know how much longer she could handle it before she went mad. Because it wasn't just an extension of her hollow-hearted feelings. It wasn't just depression.

It was a waking nightmare.

She got images in her head, images so alien to her she couldn't fathom where they came from. Images of dark nights, dark men, and Dark Marks. Nights plagued with dying screams and hysterical sobs, and bodies...bodies everywhere. Sometimes she saw Duncrop. People she knew and loved, whose deaths she had not been there to witness, who had died while she lay sleeping hundreds of miles away, innocent and unaware...she saw them die. Many times. But always the same shrieks, always the same hysterics, the same men in the same black cloaks with the same spell, and always, always, always, the same horrible Dark Mark hanging in the sky, a ghastly shimmering scar oozing death against the starlight.

Lin didn't know why these images bombarded her, so many months after everything had ended, and with such clarity Lin wondered if someone else's memories had somehow seeped into her brain. But no--that didn't make sense. Memories were rarely so clear. These nightmares were much more like a movie or a dream...except the same one, over and over without any rhyme or reason....

That wasn't quite true, though. It wasn't always the same one. Sometimes she didn't see Duncrop. Sometimes she saw...elsewhere. Elsewhere wasn't really a place, nor was it just one place, but the other images Lin had, the other deaths she saw.... It was still the same men in the same dark cloaks, but sometimes the number of men varied, and the locations were different and unfamiliar to Lin, as were the people who died. She didn't know where these images came from, either, and they frightened her more.

Nightmares of the deaths in Duncrop, at least, she could explain as the ravings of her imagination. Her brain could easily have pieced the images of the Duncrop deaths together, from what she knew personally of the people and the town, combined with what she'd heard of the Death Eaters and the image of the Dark Mark she'd seen in the Daily Prophet.

But the other images....

Lin shuddered as it tried to take her over again. She was unwilling, today, to submit to these waking nightmares, and fought against it, lifting her head and frantically reading through her Potions textbook, hoping the normality of the text would ground her and she wouldn't drift away again.

She was fighting a losing battle. Potions wasn't interesting enough to capture her attention, and it swept over her menacingly. No, Lin cried, silently, not again, not again, not again...not today.... She closed her eyes and prayed, asking for something...anything...some kind of miracle...some kind of--

"Lin?"

Lin's eyes flew open, and she snapped entirely away from it for a moment, surprised. She looked up to see a short, fourteen-year-old boy gazing at her uncertainly. It was Anthony Hall, her partner from Potions class. Lin blinked at him.

"Yeah?" she replied, too surprised to register that it had gone and her prayers had been answered.

"Um...how are you?" Anthony blurted, shifting his books from his right hand to his left uncertainly.

"Uh...fine," Lin replied, still a little dumbstruck.

"What...what're you working on?" Anthony asked, clearing his throat nervously mid-sentence.

Lin forgot. She looked down at her Potions book dumbly for a minute, and then back up at him. "Potions," she said finally. "Essay," she added, unnecessarily. "Stupid," she concluded, and wondered what was wrong with her.

Anthony grinned, a bit uncertainly. "Yeah," he agreed. "Potions is pretty bad. You handled that Sleeping Draught great, though. Yesterday," he added quickly, as though Lin might have forgotten.

Lin didn't mind, though. She had forgotten. Apparently she could still do Potions while under the influence of unwelcome daydreams--that, at least, was comforting. Or...perhaps not. What else had she said and done while in this state that she didn't remember?

"Is today Wednesday?" she asked, feeling dumb.

"Yeah," Anthony replied, nodding fervently. "Wednesday."

Lin's mind sluggishly kicked into gear. "Um," she said, looking at the empty chair on the right-hand side of her table. "Why don't you sit down?" she suggested.

Anthony did, knocking over one of her inkwells in the process. This one, thankfully, was closed, so it didn't make a mess. "Oops," he said, looking embarrassed nonetheless.

"It's all right," Lin assured him, turning it right side up again.

"So," Anthony said, fumbling through his books for some parchment. "Care to help me with that Potions essay?"

"Um...sure," Lin replied, thinking, obscurely, that Lily should have been there to help them. "I haven't gotten very far," she warned him. "I'm a bit stuck over all this Mandrake Root nonsense."

"Oh, that! I know what that's about," Anthony said, looking a bit more cheerful. He pointed out several passages in Lin's Potions book that she hadn't noticed before, about Mandrake Root being unusual in the Sleeping Draught because normally it was used in potions that brought people out of coma-like slumbers, or helped to Un-Petrify them.

Anthony ended up helping Lin more than she did him, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, the more questions Lin asked the more confident he seemed to feel, so she didn't withhold any. By the end of the essay, they were carrying on an actual conversation, with very few "uh"s or "um"s or "yeah"s, and it was broken up only by the dinner bell. Lin and Anthony rose rather reluctantly, and accompanied each other to the Great Hall, where they split, and Anthony took a seat at the Hufflepuff table with his loud, boisterous friends. Lin trudged slowly to the Gryffindor table and took a seat at the end, next to a group of giggling, preoccupied Sixth Years who didn't seem to notice she was there.

Lily had never felt so incompetent in all her life. The only thing she'd managed to do right so far was work the bloody coffee machine, but what kind of accomplishment was that when no one ever needed coffee? Any time she wandered around looking for something useful to do, she'd get yelled at either for not doing anything, or to do something she hadn't been taught how to do, and that just made her more tense, so the next time she was asked to do anything she screwed it up, even if she'd done it ten times before without a problem.

What's the point of all this anyway? Lily thought angrily, frowning into the palms of her hands.

She was sitting on a closed toilet seat in the ladies' bathroom with her head in her hands, feeling sorry for herself.

She'd spent the last four days toiling around in the Ministry of Magic's Auror offices, working, basically, as an intern. When she wasn't working in the Auror offices, she was with the other Training students, being lectured by Fletcher Hawkes on various Auror duties, or practicing various spells and dueling techniques, or sitting around and whining about how boring it was.

At the moment, Lily didn't find it so much boring as she did...unreasonable. How was she supposed to know where to find inter-office memo owls, extra quills, or various outdated editions of the Daily Prophet, the Wizarding Post, and the Quibbler? When the Aurors didn't need her, they treated her as though she wasn't there, and when they did need her, they treated her as though her entire purpose in life was to serve their every whim, and became irritated when she didn't know where to find something or how to do something or didn't carry out the task efficiently enough.

Look here, she felt like saying sometimes, I am the top student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I resent being treated in such an unfeeling manner.

Well, no, she didn't ever actually feel like saying this, because it sounded silly, and also despite her complaints about the Aurors, she still had respect for them. They had all gone to wizarding schools, too--many of them to Hogwarts--and graduated, undoubtedly, with high marks. Beyond that, they had accumulated impressive skills in areas Lily was not particularly familiar with...so there didn't seem to be much point in trying to impress them with her academics.

Plus, when they were not chewing her out for her mistakes, many of the Aurors were actually quite nice. Anita Irons, for example, had a wicked sense of humor, and was rarely too stressed out to stop and explain things to the Auror Training students. She'd explained to Lily that, since this was the first year they'd done the program, many of the Aurors didn't know how they were supposed to handle the students--and many were, in fact, entirely opposed to the students being there, which weighed down the atmosphere a bit.

The ones that rubbed Lily the wrong way, however, bothered her so much that not even the kindness of Anita could assuage her bruised ego. Lily had never thought of herself as having an ego before, but she supposed that was the only word for it. She hadn't, for the last seven years, been treated as anything other than an intelligent, responsible, outstanding student, and she wasn't sure she could handle much more of this abuse.

Outside her stall, the door to the ladies' bathroom swung open and slammed against the wall fiercely. Lily jumped and removed her head from her hands, peeking through the cracks in her stall door to see who it was. She couldn't see anything but sinks, though, and her curiosity got the best of her, so--perhaps a little unwisely--she stood and let herself out of the stall.

It was Sally Parkinson.

Sally stood clutching either side of a sink, fuming and glaring at the mirror, muttering unkind things about the Aurors under her breath. When she heard Lily open the stall door, she whirled around and glared at her furiously. Lily stood there for a moment, unsure what to say.

"Do they just--treat you like garbage?" Sally demanded after a minute. Her eyes were damp and shimmering. "Like they don't care how hard you worked to get to this point, and don't have any regard for how brilliant you might be or what family you come from or--" Sally's voice cracked dangerously, and she whirled back to the mirror, trying to compose herself. "Or anything," she finished, rather high-pitched.

Lily slowly approached the sinks and took a paper towel from the rack at the end of the row. "Yes," she said softly, extending the paper towel to Sally. Sally took it without looking at Lily and dabbed at her eyes angrily.

"What's the point of this anyway?" Sally demanded, her voice softer. "What does this have to do with Auror Training?"

"I guess...I guess they want us to get an idea of what it's like to work in the Ministry," Lily reasoned. "They're just not doing a very good job of it."

Sally laughed half-heartedly. "I thought for sure they'd be treating you differently," she said, shaking her head.

Lily blinked and stared at her. "Why?" she asked incredulously.

Sally looked at her oddly. "Because you're the Head Girl," she said, as thought it should be obvious. "They're always treating you like you're something special." She shrugged, but her voice was bitter.

Lily knew this was probably true--hadn't she just thought to herself that she should be treated better because of her Hogwarts status?--but she'd never considered that the other students would openly resent her because of this. "We're all the same to them," Lily replied. "Most of them don't want us here and we just get in the way."

"Then why did they bring us here?" Sally marveled, shaking her head at the mirror. "This is just..."

The door to the bathroom flew open again and in burst a smiling, shining Naomi Collins, fellow Hogwarts student and Hufflepuff. "Isn't this just wonderful?" she asked of her companions, joining them by the sinks to wash her hands. "Phideus Nott just spent half an hour talking about the training process to me. He thinks I've got real potential," she gushed. "I can't believe how much I'm learning! Isn't it just great?"

Sally and Lily stared at her for a moment. Naomi flashed them a bright, bubbly smile, and Lily considered picking up the rack of paper towels and throwing it at her.

"Yeah," Lily agreed flatly. "It's super."

Naomi giggled and threw away the paper towel she'd been drying her hands with. "Well, I better get back to work. Don't stay in the bathroom too long, ladies, or they'll think you're slacking off!"

Lily and Sally watched her leave, dumbfounded.

"Well," Lily said, turning to the mirror behind her sink. "I think I may just...have to go throw up!" she chirped, mockingly.

Sally snorted appreciatively, then shook her head in disbelief. "Phideus Nott?" she repeated, dumbstruck. "That old bastard hates everybody! And furthermore, he--" Sally cut herself off, glancing at Lily. "I bet he doesn't know she's a Hufflepuff."

"Why? What's he got against Hufflepuffs?"

"The same thing every Slytherin has against the Hufflepuffs," Sally snapped, irritated. "They're so...simple," she sneered.

Lily sighed. Sally seemed to be recovering. "Well," she ventured, uncertain whether she should make such an unfeeling comment to a Slytherin, "I can think of a couple reasons why an old bastard might like Naomi, and they're both right here," she said, patting her chest.

Sally stared at her for a moment, surprised, and then burst into somewhat unkind laughter. Lily joined in, feeling a bit cruel, but glad all the same that she wasn't alone in her distaste for the training program so far--even if her companion was the most unlikely of witches.

Melody felt like hell. She hadn't slept much the past few days, and the physical exhaustion combined with her emotional exhaustion was taking its toll on her social life, her studies, and--more pertinent to her current situation--her Quidditch-playing abilities.

"Melody!" Arabella Figg yelled across the Pitch. "I know Sirius is gone, but for the love of Merlin, would you hit some Bludgers?"

Melody groaned inwardly. Did she have to bring up Sirius right now? For the thousandth time that week, memories of Sirius's kiss and Mimi's hurt, horrified face flashed through her mind. Wearily, Melody smacked a Bludger with her club and directed her broom across the pitch, where another Bludger was bothering Arabella.

"Finally!" Arabella screeched when Melody arrived, and she zoomed across the pitch toward the goals, where she received the Quaffle from Mundungus and made an incredibly fantastic shot toward the far left hoop, which was unfortunately blocked by Anthony Brown, their rapidly improving Fifth Year Keeper.

Maybe this would be easier if I hadn't stayed up until two last night practicing hexes on the chamber pots in MHQ, Melody thought, whacking a Bludger away from Mundungus rather lamely. Or maybe this would be easier if the new Beater were as good as Sirius.

They'd gotten Sixth Year Don Mullins to take Sirius's place, and all in all he wasn't bad...he just wasn't as good as Sirius. Better was their replacement for James, though James would be very offended if Melody told him that. Slim, talented Third Year Bridget DeBeauvois was the Gryffindor team's temporary Seeker. Apparently she'd been riding a broom since she was old enough to walk, and her uncle, the celebrated Quiberon Quafflepunchers Seeker Claude DeBeauvois, had been training her as a Seeker since the age of six. Bridget's only problem was her bloated ego, but considering her level of skill and the ego of the man who'd trained her...Melody couldn't really blame her.

Arabella, for the time being, was running Quidditch practices, and while she was a competent Substitute Captain, she was also very high-strung, and yelled at the team about as often as she practiced with them. Bridget was Arabella's favorite subject of ridicule, though Melody couldn't figure out why, and arguments between Arabella and Bridget often interrupted practice for ten minutes at a time. Arabella harped on Bridget for catching the Snitch too soon and ignoring strategy, and Bridget recoiled by criticizing Arabella's sometimes-shaky form.

Often these fights ended with a well-aimed Bludger shot from Don, or some course of drastic action from Mundungus, who was the only person brave enough to fly up to Arabella and clap a hand over her mouth when she was spitting angry. Melody usually didn't pay attention to these fights; she was so tired she just zoned out and tried not to fall asleep on her broom. Once she'd gotten hit by a Bludger while nodding off, right in the stomach, and had keeled over, directing her broom into a sharp nose-dive which she didn't have the strength of mind to pull out of. The combined efforts of Bridget and Alina Archer--the only two members of the Gryffindor team able to go into steep dives without flattening themselves on the ground--had prevented her from smacking head-first into the soil, but practice ended after that because Melody was too winded to continue, and Arabella was too fed up with Bridget to bother with it.

Melody would be very glad when Auror Training was over.

For now, though, she had another fifteen minutes of practice to suffer through. The Chasers were working out a new play, and Melody and Don were hitting Bludgers back and forth, to keep the balls out of trouble. Arabella finished with the Chasers and explained the play to the whole team, instructing Melody and Don to let the Bludgers fly free. They did, and Melody swerved around Bridget to get her first Bludger hit of the play. Alina made a brilliant pass to Mundungus, who dove to escape an approaching Bludger--which Don got a moment later--before siphoning the Quaffle to Arabella. Arabella started to toss the ball to Alina, who was swooping toward the goalposts elegantly, when Bridget came out of nowhere, hand outstretched, blocking the Quaffle's path.

Arabella lost it.

"What d'you think you're doing ruining a perfectly good play the first time we try to run it? ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"I saw the Snitch, I had to--"

"I don't CARE if you saw the Snitch, it doesn't MATTER in practice like it does in a match--"

"WELL HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PREPARE FOR THE BLOODY MATCHES IF YOU WON'T LET ME CATCH THE SNITCH DURING PRACTICE?" Bridget bellowed.

"THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRACTICING AND SCREWING UP PEOPLE'S BLOODY PLAYS!"

"YOU CALL THAT A PLAY? I'VE SEEN BETTER PLAYS FROM HUFFLEPUFF!"

"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, YOU ARROGANT--HOITY-TOITY--OVERZEALOUS--OVERRATED--SPOILED--LITTLE--MAGGOT!"

Bridget's eyes turned from dusky blue to steely gray. Her hand, which had been slowly tightening around the Snitch, suddenly relaxed, and the little gold sphere zig-zagged drunkenly through the air, its wings bent and battered by Bridget's angry fingers.

In the next five seconds, Bridget did something so astounding Melody's mouth fell wide open, and she didn't move for the next few minutes, her brain still trying to process what she'd seen.

Bridget extended her arms above her head and grabbed a Bludger out of midair, the ball's inertia dragging her arms so far back Melody thought they'd break. Bridget was motionless for a second as she gained control of the ball, and then, screaming, she forced her hands back over her head and hurled the ball at Arabella with all her might.

The Bludger hit Arabella's face with a mighty SMACK, and Arabella's head snapped back. Her body followed, the impact toppling her heels-over-head backwards off her broom. Mundungus caught her as she fell, and the rest of the team hovered, motionless and dumbtstruck, in midair. As Mundungus reached the ground, Arabella clutched her nose and screamed, and the sound seemed to snap Bridget out of her anger.

Bridget's eyes flew wide and returned to their normal color. She dove to the ground, a look of horror on her face, and she jumped off her broom to examine Arabella. The Seventh Year girl was crying, small bits of blood trickling out from under her fingers, which were still clutched protectively over her nose. The rest of the Gryffindor team quickly followed suit, landing and discarding their brooms carelessly, and accompanied Mundungus, Arabella, and a nearly-hysterical Bridget to the Hospital Wing.

By the time they got there, Bridget was sobbing so profoundly Madam Pomfrey thought she was the one in need of care, and dragged Bridget halfway to a bed before she realized, through the muddled cries of protest from the Gryffindor Team, that Arabella was the reason they'd come. Madam Pomfrey efficiently shooed everyone out of the Hospital Wing except for Bridget, who refused to leave and was so hysterical that Madam Pomfrey didn't waste her energy arguing with the girl.

It was quite a task to get Arabella to remove her hands from her nose, but when she did Bridget clutched them immediately and began blubbering an apology. Arabella was still in too much pain to respond, but she squeezed Bridget's hands fiercely as Madam Pomfrey wiped the blood away with a warm cloth.

Arabella's nose was healed in a second, with a wave of Madam Pomfrey's wand, but the emotional damage remained.

As Arabella walked out of the hospital wing, fully recovered and looking no worse for the wear, Bridget stumbled behind her, stricken. The Third Year sank to her knees in the middle of the hallway, sobbing, and began pleading with Arabella for forgiveness. Most of her apologies were impossible to understand through the tears, and Melody could have sworn that once or twice she heard Bridget's apologies being spoken in French.

Arabella sank to her knees across from Bridget, and the rest of the Gryffindor team huddled around them, waiting apprehensively.

She raised her hand and let it hover in the air for a moment before swinging it at Bridget's face and giving her a solid SMACK across the cheek. Bridget's head jerked to the side, and her sobbing halted. She brought a shaky hand up to her cheek and cradled it for a moment, staring at Arabella, mascara-soaked tears staining both sides of her face.

"I deserved that," she said finally, nodding.

Arabella's anger left her and she looked at Bridget for a moment, thinking. "So did I," she said finally, and put her arms around Bridget, pulling her into a hug. Bridget sobbed quietly on Arabella's shoulder for a few minutes while the rest of the team watched, stunned.

There were no more squabbles during the Gryffindor Team's practices for the rest of the month.

On Friday Melody received her first owl from Lily. She was most unhappy to see that the owl who had delivered this letter, after dropping it at Melody's plate, flew to the Ravenclaw table and deposited a similar-looking letter at Mimi's place.

After glaring over at Mimi for a few moments, Melody ripped open her letter eagerly. She hadn't expected to hear from Lily until she got back from Training at the end of the month, and looked forward to writing a reply, which would be a nice respite from trying to confide her troubles to the boys. Not that she couldn't talk to Arabella, of course, but lately Arabella was a bit preoccupied with Mundungus and Quidditch, and besides she was a blabbermouth--it just wasn't the same.

Melody,

Auror Training is horrible. I'm sure you don't believe me, but it is. All I've done is run around the Ministry of Magic office fetching things for the Aurors, who yell at me all the time and treat me like they don't want me there. (According to one of the Aurors, some of them don't want us there.) I know you wanted to go on the training program, though, so I'll stop complaining about it before I make you feel bad.

Sirius told me all about you and him and Mimi. Melody--what were you THINKING?! And how could you go and do something like that without telling ME about it??? What good's being a best friend if you can't get all the juicy gossip before everyone else does? Geez...

All joking aside, I know you must be heartbroken. Believe me though, so is Sirius. And even more than that, he's completely confused and guilty, and doesn't know what he wants. I really hope you do though, Mel. I hope you know what you're doing, and I really, really wish I could talk to you about it. And it's not just Sirius, it's Mimi, too. I hope you're not fighting too horribly.

I know something's been bothering you lately, and I wish you'd talk to me about that, too. I'm worried about you.

I didn't mean to bring all this up when I started writing, I really didn't. I'm sorry. This must be the most depressing owl ever. Anyway, let me know how things are going at Hogwarts. I'd love to hear about it. I really miss all of you. It's kind of lonely here, even though I did have a really strange bonding moment with Sally Parkinson in the ladies' bathroom today. Oh--and I have kind of a strange request. There's a girl in your House, a Fourth Year, named Linda Sharp. Kind of...keep an eye on her, would you? She lost her family last summer and she's having a hard time coping. It's kind of difficult to explain how we know each other...but I'll fill you in when I get back to Hogwarts. I introduced her to Hagrid, but...she might need someone else to talk to. Just...if she's looking really lonely, go up and try to talk to her, will you?

I sent this owl Wednesday...so keep in mind how long it took to get to you, because I won't be able to get any owls from you after next Sunday when I leave the Ministry.

Hang in there.

Much love,

Lily

Lil~

You must be crazy. What's so bad about Auror Training? Just because a couple of Aurors are jerks doesn't mean you have to take it personally. You're too brilliant. It's the Ministry's fault if they're making you do stupid, menial work instead of something that's actually useful.

That Linda girl--isn't she the one who ran crying out of the Great Hall last year because of that article they put in the Daily Prophet? I think I know who you're talking about. She always looks really sad...I'll see what I can do.

On to more pressing matters...

I don't know what to do about Sirius. Lil, it's all my fault. I made a mess of everything. Mimi hates me. And if Sirius is at all in his right mind, he should hate me too. But--oh, Lily, you know that's not what I want. I know Sirius should hate me, and he has every right to, but I don't know what I'd do if he did actually hate me. Avoiding me and dating Mimi is one thing, but hating me? I don't know if I could handle it. I missed him so much while he was dating Mimi, and I didn't mean to screw it up this way, I really didn't, I just wanted to be friends with him again. Is it so bad that I got jealous?

I love him, Lily. I really do...despite what you might think about teenagers and love. I just wish I knew what to do to make everything all right again.

As for me and Mimi...I don't know what to tell you. We're actually not fighting, but maybe that's because we're not speaking. At all. If we pass each other in the hallway we'll either ignore each other or glare at each other. I shouldn't be glaring, though, since I feel so guilty about it, but when Mimi gives me that stare of hers, I can't just stand there and take it. I have to glare back at her.

I hope everything works out, Lil. I really wish you were here to help me figure out what to do. Any suggestions?

In desperate need of guidance,

Melody

XXX OOO

But Melody's letter was wrong. Melody sent it the day she received her first owl from Lily, on Friday, and Lily didn't get it until Sunday, so when she wrote back to Melody she didn't know about what happened on Saturday. So when Melody opened Lily's next letter, on Tuesday, hoping for some kind of advice or guidance, she was sorely disappointed to realize that Lily had no way of knowing about the trouble Melody was in.

When Lily wrote Melody back on Sunday afternoon, she had not yet received the owl Melody wrote her on Sunday night while she was supposed to be cleaning the trophy room, and therefore had no idea of the mess Mimi and Melody had made of the second-floor Charms corridor, or the duel that had caused this destruction, or the week's worth of detentions both girls had received because of it.

Saturday was a bad day from the minute Mimi woke up. It had been exactly a week since the day of the Halloween Ball--exactly a week since Melody had destroyed Mimi's relationship with Sirius, and exactly six days since Mimi's best friend had departed for Auror training and left her to face the aftermath of Melody's (and Sirius's) actions alone. Even after a week of recovery, Mimi's mind still reeked of emotional sewage, and her anger toward Melody had not ebbed much. Remus had been on the receiving end of far more emotional outbursts and furious rants than Mimi realized, but she could tell his patience was wearing thin.

On top of all that, Mimi woke up with a headache. She, Susie, and Matt had played Exploding Snap in the common room for four hours last night, and when they finally trudged upstairs at one o'clock, Mimi was still hearing popping noises in her head. Apparently those imaginary 'pop's had evolved into a headache while she slept, and now she couldn't move without her head throbbing angrily.

Walking down to breakfast was rather painful, but once she got there she was able to pop a couple of pain pills--hey, Muggle remedies still worked, even if Madam Pomfrey didn't believe in them--and eat something hot and tasty, and that helped a bit. She and Susie ate together, and then decided to go back to the Common Room and relax for a while, since neither of them were awake enough to tackle Transfiguration essays yet.

She bumped into someone in the Charms corridor, and would have just said "excuse me" and gone on her merry way, except when she glanced back to apologize she realized it was Melody, and her gaze hardened, almost unconsciously. "Watch where you're going," Mimi snapped, and Melody whirled to face her.

"I beg your pardon," Melody said, annoyed, "but I think you were the one who bumped into me."

"Well, I think you're mistaken," Mimi replied nastily, "and you should apologize to me."

Melody's eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. "Oh, really?"

"Yes. Really."

"Well, I'm not sure you're going to get an apology," Melody snapped, crossing her arms, "and I'm not sure there's much of anything you can do about it."

"I," Mimi replied imperiously, crossing her own arms, "am going to wait right here until you apologize to me."

"Well, if all you're going to do is stand around all day, I think I'll be on my way," Melody said, turning her back on Mimi and continuing down the corridor.

Mimi's eyes blazed. She whipped her wand out of her robes and pointed it at Melody's back. "Get, back here you little--witch!" she screeched. To Mimi's satisfaction, Melody halted.

Slowly, Melody turned around, and regarded Mimi's outstretched wand as though it were a mildly annoying bug.

"What are you going to do with that thing? Throw it at me?"

Mimi's eyes narrowed. "I can duel, you know," she said darkly, "and contrary to popular belief, I am not afraid of you."

Melody smirked and slid her wand out of her robes, examining it casually. "Are you challenging me?" she inquired, raising one eyebrow at her opponent.

By this time a small crowd had gathered around them, curious. Mimi glanced at the crowd slowly before returning her gaze to Melody, a smirk growing on her own face.

"You bet," Mimi replied coolly.

Melody just grinned.

Remus pushed his way through the crowd a split second before the duel started. It didn't take him much longer than that to realize what was going to happen, and as the first spell erupted from Mimi's opponent's wand, Remus yelled out, "Melody, NO!"

It was thanks to Remus that Mimi didn't get completely obliterated. Not because he distracted Melody and her spell missed, not because his words prepared Mimi for the bombardment and she was able to block the spell, and certainly not because Melody took his words to heart and stopped the duel. No, Mimi had Remus to thank for her success in this duel because he really, really, really pissed her off.

The first spell Melody shot at Mimi hit her like a freight train. She flew backwards and hit several spectators, falling to the floor in a fit of horrible coughing. Several slugs erupted from her mouth and she glared up at Melody, wiping slime away from her lips.

"Rictusempra!" Mimi screeched, firing a spell at Melody from the floor. Melody dodged it easily, and a

Hufflepuff Third Year absorbed the blow, collapsing in a fit of giggles.

Melody shot three more hexes at Mimi before she could get off the floor. One of these she managed to block, one she deflected to a Ravenclaw First Year who fell to the floor, his legs suddenly like jelly, but the last hit Mimi with full force and before she knew what was happening, an itchy red rash exploded on her face and arms. She tried to fire a hex back at Melody, but she fell into another fit of coughing, and up came more slugs.

After she'd deposited six of the slimy green things on the floor, she looked up to see Remus standing in between her and Melody, yelling at her furiously, detaining Melody's attempts to hex Mimi again. "Remus, SHUT UP!" Mimi shrieked, and sent a Stunning Spell his way

Remus, unprepared, fell to the floor completely paralyzed. Mimi got up and shoved him out of the way. "I can fight my own damn battles, thank you very much," she informed him, before whirling on Melody and shooting a Bat-Bogey Hex at her. Melody, infuriatingly, deflected it, but the spell hit one of the portraits in the hallway and landed on a woman in a long green dress, who shrieked and dove behind a bush in her painting to hide, utterly humiliated.

The duel raged on. After seeing what happened to Remus, no one dared try to interrupt the two girls. Melody was a much better dueler than Mimi, but the audience they'd accumulated (those who weren't currently suffering from the effects of a hex, anyway) was rather impressed with Mimi's determination. Despite the number of hexes Melody managed to nail on her, Mimi didn't give up, and eventually landed a curse of her own. It wasn't a very good curse, but it made Melody's feet tap dance of their own accord, and this gave Mimi enough time to remove some of the curses Melody had placed on her--the itchy rash, for example, which she was very glad to have gone.

The duel carried on this way for a few more minutes, until one of the Sixth Year Prefects had the presence of mind to run to the Great Hall and get a teacher from the staff table. During this time, Mimi managed to deflect or dodge most of the hexes Melody threw at her, and even got off a few of her own, though she didn't land any more, and in the end the hallway and the crowd of students watching suffered far more damage than Mimi or Melody did.

At least until Professor McGonagall arrived, they did.

"FINITE INCANTATUM!" the Professor bellowed, so livid her face was nearly purple.

Mimi felt herself returning to normal almost immediately--except for the slugs. She belched up another one and Professor McGonagall glared at her so fiercely she wanted to crawl into one of the portraits and die.

The hexed students returned to normal as well, and the crowd dissipated as the Professor yelled at the students to go about their business. One unlucky Slytherin boy remained, his ears having grown so large and heavy he couldn't lift his head off the ground. Professor McGonagall conversed with one of the portraits for a moment, and sent a fat, jolly-looking friar huffing toward the hospital wing to fetch Madam Pomfrey.

Then she turned her attentions to Mimi and Melody.

Professor McGonagall yelled so loudly Mimi's ears throbbed, and she couldn't make out any actual sentences, just broken phrases, interrupted by the occasional intake of breath, which, Mimi judged, could last the professor a full thirty seconds before she had to stop and take a breath again.

"NEVER IN MY LIFE--CANNOT BELIEVE--UTTERLY IRRESPONSIBLE--SEVENTH-YEAR PREFECTS--INNOCENT BYSTANDERS--MY OWN HOUSE--NO MAGIC IN CORRIDORS--SEVENTY-FIVE POINTS FROM--DETENTION FOR A WEEK!"

Mimi looked shamefully at the ground, her cheeks burning. She couldn't bring herself to look at Melody, but she imagined her adversary wasn't looking much better.

A burp erupted from her throat and a batch of slugs cascaded out of her mouth.

This was the worst Saturday ever.

James was starting to get the hang of things. He'd finally passed to the next level of Disguises and Cloaking Practice--not only that, he'd been the first one to do it. Monday afternoon they'd done the hide-and-seek exercise for the first time in two days, and James finally found a good spot. Two days of Inquiry and Detection practice had made him a little rusty, but his hiding places were still better than they'd been at the start of last week. Moody took longer to find all of them that day, and this mean that, while James had to stay silent and still longer, he also had more time to find concealment. On his fourth try that day, he finally found a good spot.

The spot was just off the bank of the river that ran through the mountains, about half a mile away from their campsite. Two boulders jutted up from the riverbed, in water about chest-height--for James, anyway. He wedged himself between these two boulders and sat, waiting, for nearly an hour before Moody found him. The water was cold, but James had a very nice cold-resistant, self-heating cloak, so except for his fingers and toes he was really quite warm.

"Very nice," Moody finally said when he found him. "Protected by a land overhang, not overly conspicuous from the shore, a fast and easy way to escape if need be...not bad, Potter," he growled. "Go wait at the campsite."

James didn't care that he was soaking wet. He whistled happily the whole way back.

Even now, Tuesday night, he still felt proud. Frank had found a suitable hiding place this morning--Vivian this afternoon--and now all three of them were waiting around the fireplace for Adam to return, successful.

"D'you think he'll come soon?" Frank asked, rubbing his stomach. "I'm starving."

Vivian snorted. "That dolt? Not a chance."

Frank sighed unhappily, patting his grumbling stomach. They were silent for a few minutes as Frank tried to assuage his stomach and Vivian glared at the fire.

"Why don't you like him?" James asked finally.

Vivian looked up at him, surprised. "Who, Adam?"

"Yeah."

"Because he's a prat," she replied, her gaze slipping back to the fire. "A big ugly stupid prat," she muttered, a moment later.

"Yeah? What'd he do to you?"

Vivian's gazed snapped back to James. She seemed surprised he was still talking to her. "What'd he...do to me?"

"Yeah," James replied, irritated.

"He's just a prat," she snapped. "Prats don't do anything to people, they're just...prats," she said again, as though this would clarify her point.

"So he hasn't done anything to you," James concluded. Sure, Adam was a bit cocky, and he did seem to think that just about every girl he met was in love with him, but he hadn't seen Adam do anything to Vivian personally.

Vivian seemed very annoyed by this. "He's a jerk, all right? Didn't you hear me? He's a total git. He hasn't said one nice thing to me since we started his trip, and if I have to spend much more time around him and his stupid--blimey--inflated--bigoted--prat-ish male ego, I'll just--just--"

"Combust?" Frank suggested.

"Slap him!" Vivian fumed, her vicious gaze flitting back and forth between the two seemingly unaffected boys. "Or--hex him! Or--something!" she insisted, in a rage. James just shrugged. "What?" Vivian screeched, fed up with his lackadaisical manner. "Don't you believe me?"

Frank's eyes got very wide. "Yes--yes--we believe you, all right?" he said quickly. "Don't we, James?"

James, who was more amused than alarmed, did not make a very good show of agreeing with Frank, and he thought Vivian's eyes were going to bug out of her head by the time Adam and Moody finally returned to the campsite.

"I did it!" Adam said, more wearily than triumphantly, plopping down next to James--and also, unfortunately, next to Vivian.

"Took you long enough, you stupid--barmy--incompetent--codger!" Vivian shrieked, slapping him on the arm. "I'm not hungry! I'm going to bed!" she yelled in Moody's direction, and stomped into her tent.

"Well, she's not going to get very far in Stealth training," Moody observed, sitting down in the spot she'd vacated. It was the first time he'd made anything remotely resembling a joke, and the boys burst into appreciative laughter.

In the tent, Vivian buried herself underneath her covers and fumed. Adam was such a prat. He was just a--a stupid prat. Plus he was an arrogant, bloated Ravenclaw Quidditch player, and an all-around git. She didn't need a good reason to dislike him. He was just a dislike-able person, damn it, and she couldn't understand why James and Frank acted like she was treating him unreasonably.

Stupid--stupid--stupid, stupid Adam.

* * *

Things were improving greatly. Fletcher Hawkes had finally worked things out with the Ministry so each Training Student was assigned to a willing Auror, and they could follow them around all day and get a good idea of what it was like to be an Auror, instead of being treated like garbage and asked to...go fetch things all the time. Lily was assigned to Anita--by Anita's choice, Lily suspected--and they got on fabulously.

Lily still had to do her fair share of menial chores--scribbling out memos, fetching extra parchment, ordering sandwiches and things for lunch--but at least she didn't feel menial while she was doing them. Anita revealed as much about the Ministry and Aurors as she could--which, considering the job Anita was assigned to, wasn't much. Anita couldn't actually say what she was working on, but just from being around her Lily gleaned that it had something to do with Quodpot, Aruba, and talking parrots. (How the three of those had any correlation to one another, and why it was important enough for a British Auror to be working on, was beyond Lily.)

When the day at the Ministry ended, Lily met up with Fletcher Hawkes and the other three Training Students by the elevator, which they rode upward to the streets of London. They were sharing a shabby flat--two bedrooms, a mostly-broken refrigerator, one very tiny bathroom, and a lumpy couch, which the girls made Sirius sleep on--about three blocks away from the Ministry. Fletcher Hawkes confiscated their wands and locked them in each night before Disapparating to, presumably, his own flat, which was undoubtedly more glamorous than the one the students shared.

However, it was warm and, despite the unusual number of spiders they shared their sleeping quarters with, rather cozy.

It was Tuesday, and that night, while the students sat around their crooked, decomposing wooden dinner table and ate supper, Lily received an owl from Melody. She hadn't expected one, because her own owl to Melody should just have arrived at Hogwarts that morning, but when she opened the letter the reason for Melody's correspondence became evident.

"Oh, bugger," Lily muttered under her breath, reading the letter and taking a bite of her sandwich. The other students looked at her curiously.

"Bugger what?" Naomi asked.

"Melody," Lily replied, glancing up from the parchment. "Got a bunch of detentions."

The girls rolled their eyes and returned to their meals. "Like that's anything new," Naomi said dismissively.

Sirius, however, paled a bit, and traded a significant glance with Lily, who was hiding her face behind the parchment. "LATER," she mouthed, and Sirius nodded briefly before returning to his soup.

They went to bed not long after supper, having grown bored of the Exploding Snap game Sirius brought along, and without much of anything to talk about, as apparently they'd rehashed all the brilliant parts of their respective days during lunch.

Lily roomed with Naomi--they'd decided Sally's snoring should be locked out of earshot and had elected to give the girl her own room--and Lily waited until her roommate had fallen asleep to creep out of bed and into the living room where Sirius was falling asleep on the couch.

"Sirius," Lily hissed, poking him. He jerked and looked up at her, blinking rapidly.

"I wasn't asleep," he said, sitting up. "I was just...meditating."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Sure you were, Sirius. Here," she said, handing him the letter. "Read it."

It was innocent enough for Sirius to read, as it was composed mostly of nasty phrases directed towards Mimi, but it also contained a brief synopsis of the girls' duel and McGonagall's subsequent fit of rage. More importantly, however, it didn't contain any of Melody's sentiments toward Sirius--although if Sirius hadn't figured those out by now he really was stupid beyond all reason.

"Seventy-five points?" Sirius gasped. "That'll put us below the Hufflepuffs!"

"Hey, McGonagall took seventy-five from my House too."

"Yeah, but...that's not Gryffindor, that's different!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Just keep reading."

Sirius scanned the rest of the letter and then handed it back to Lily, shaking his head. "This is all my fault."

Lily rolled up the piece of parchment and hit him with it. "It's their fault. It had nothing to do with you."

"They wouldn't be fighting if I hadn't screwed their friendship up in the first place."

"No," Lily said, decisively. "They wouldn't be fighting if they weren't stupid teenage girls. As it is, you're all at odds with each other because you're all stupid teenagers incapable of expressing your true feelings to the people you fancy."

"Oh, this from the queen of expressing her innermost feelings to the boy she fancies."

"Shush," Lily said, her cheeks coloring a bit. "We're not talking about me, we're talking about you."

"Hey," Sirius protested, "I did tell Melody how I felt. It's not my fault she rejected me."

"No, but it is your fault you didn't tell her sooner--"

"But--" Sirius began, trying to protest that Melody had also refused to admit her feelings sooner, but Lily ignored him and continued.

"--AND THEN you decided that you had to make her jealous and dragged Mimi into it, because for some reason you thought you'd be able to make Melody admit her feelings for you and then ditch Mimi without anybody's feelings getting hurt."

"I--yeah, all right," Sirius said, giving in. "Go on."

"And Mimi is at fault because she is incapable of admitting her feelings for Remus because he's a werewolf, and--"

"Wait," Sirius interrupted. "How do you know about...how d'you know that he's...he's a..." he trailed off, glancing at the closed bedroom doors suspiciously.

"Oh, that," Lily said, her cheeks coloring a bit. "I figured it out...just last week. I'd been thinking for a while that someone at Hogwarts was a...you know...but I didn't connect the dots until we were talking about you and Mimi and Melody on the train. I know Mimi's liked him for a long time, but I couldn't figure out why she'd...not told him how she felt. She's usually pretty forward about that kind of thing. Anyway, I figured she might be hesitating because of...because of that."

Sirius's eyes narrowed. "You really think she's empty-headed enough to believe all those misconceptions about werewolves, even after knowing him personally--" he cut himself off and cursed for a moment, glancing at the closed bedroom doors again.

"I think they're both fast asleep, Sirius."

"You never know," Sirius said cautiously.

"Anyway," Lily said, "I don't really know what Mimi thinks. I haven't really had a chance to ask her about it...you know?"

"Yeah," he agreed, frowning. "Look, Lily...." Lily raised her eyebrows at him expectantly. "What d'you...what..."

"Just spit it out," she advised.

"What d'you think about all this?"

"'All this'? D'you want to clarify that for me, Sirius?"

"What I mean is...what d'you...when we get back to Hogwarts...what d'you think will happen?"

"Oh. That. Well..." Lily thought for a moment. "If I had to take my best guess, I'd say...Mimi and Melody probably won't be getting along very well, although they probably won't be dueling in the corridors anymore, either. And...James of course will have no idea any of this has happened, so he'll be terribly confused."

"Oh, damn," Sirius said suddenly. "You're right. I hadn't even thought of that."

"Well, that's what I'm here for," Lily said, patting him on the head. "And then...dangit, you ruined my concentration."

"Just...what d'you think will happen with me and Mimi and Melody?" Sirius prompted. "I have some ideas of my own, but I'm hoping yours will work out better for me."

"Um," Lily said, thinking her ideas weren't going to be any better than Sirius's. "I think...Mimi will probably not want to talk to you."

"I kind of expected that," Sirius said, but he looked rather glum at the prospect. "And...Melody?" he asked, sounding as though he'd rather not ask it.

"She'll be dying to talk to you," Lily said decisively.

"But...?"

"But," Lily continued, sounding regretful, "she won't."

"What? Why not?"

"Because she feels too damn guilty, that's why not," Lily snapped. "Look at what happened the last time she tried to talk to you."

Sirius considered this for a moment. "Yeah, but..."

"Besides," Lily said, interrupting him again, "she's not going to talk to you until she knows she can do it without Mimi being mad at her forever. And besides," she continued, halting Sirius this time before he could even open his mouth, "how the hell is she supposed to know if you even want to talk to her?"

"Because...you're going to owl her and tell her so?" Sirius suggested hopefully.

Lily glared at him. "No, Sirius. I am not your intermediary."

"Didn't you at least mention me when you wrote to her?" Sirius asked, looking a little downhearted.

"Of course I did," Lily said, and he brightened slightly, "but all I told her is that you felt confused and guilty and didn't know what you wanted."

"That's not true!" he protested. "I do too know what I want."

"Oh, really?" Lily said, arching an eyebrow. "Enlighten me, then. What do you want?"

"I want...I...want..." Sirius though about this for a while. "I want to get back to Hogwarts and discover that the girls have made up my mind for me," he decided. "Damn it. You're right, I don't know what I want."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "I know."

"Do you know what I want?"

"No. Not remotely."

"You're supposed to know these things, Lily-bean."

"Don't start that crap again. It's too late at night for that, and besides you shouldn't antagonize people who are willing to stay up this late discussing your problems."

As much as Sirius loved to annoy Lily, he couldn't argue with this. "All right," he agreed, and Lily looked mildly surprised, "then what d'you think I should do?"

Lily thought about this for a while, and then shook her head. "I don't know, Sirius," she said finally. "I can't tell you what to do. Especially if you don't even know what you want. What you need to do...is decide what the hell it is you want, and then..."

"Then what?"

"Go for it," Lily said, looking slightly surprised at her own conclusion. "Figure out what you're willing to sacrifice for it, and just...do it."

Mimi and Melody were forced to serve detention together all week. Sunday night they'd been in the Trophy Room, polishing all of the stupid Hogwarts awards that no one really cared about, until one o'clock in the morning when Filch was finally satisfied with their handiwork. Melody fully loathed each and every one of those trophies, especially Ursula McMillicoff's, as it was by far the biggest and the heaviest and, because it was so ornate, the hardest to polish. It had, in fact, been polished so many times that you couldn't actually read what the award was for, just that Ursula McMillicoff had received it in 1306.

Melody strongly suspected that, if anyone ever came to the Trophy Room to look at the awards, they would lose interest in Ursula's after reading her name and move on without bothering to see what she got it for. She also suspected that anyone bored enough to go to the Trophy Room would probably not appreciate how clean and shiny-looking the trophies all were, nor would they have any idea of the number of times Melody, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had been forced to polish them. Sirius, by far, had been assigned detention in the Trophy Room the most times, with James a close second, but Melody was at least a respectable third.

Not that she appreciated that now. Polishing the trophies was never fun, and it didn't get easier each time you did it--though now Melody knew exactly which spots to work on the hardest for Filch's inspection. Also, she had Mimi's help, which sped up the process a bit--or it would've, had Mimi not kept belching up slugs on the trophies.

Monday was better--but not by much. She and Mimi had to go through the greenhouses with Professor Sprout, applying various types of fertilizer, potting several dozen unruly plants, and applying Anti-Frost spells to the whole of the outdoor gardens.

Tuesday they spent in the library. Melody didn't think detention could get worse than Filch in the Trophy Room...but she'd forgotten about detention with Madam Pince.

She and Mimi had to re-shelve all the library's returned and misplaced books, as well as straighten up any volumes that looked a bit crooked or happened to be shelved in the wrong place, and God forbid Mimi or Melody re-shelve the books in the wrong spot. By the time they'd finished, Melody was beginning to wonder what kind of bribe McGonagall had given Madam Pince for her to even consent to cooperating with this detention. The woman was so obsessed with her books that she screeched if she thought either of the girls was going to drop a book, shelve a book in the wrong place, leave a book lying on a table, or--may God have mercy on their souls--bend or tear any of the pages. In one way this was good, as Madam Pince ended up doing half of the work herself instead of letting the girls do it, but in another it was quite aggravating.

Melody was extremely tense the entire time, and if Madam Pince left for a moment to check on Mimi, Melody would inevitably screw something up in her absence, and when the librarian got back she'd shriek and take over for Melody for a few minutes, before running off to check on Mimi again.

All in all it was the most stressful set of detentions Melody had ever received. Even if she wasn't being advised by a high-strung, book-hugging librarian, she still had to share her tasks with Mimi, and the awkward silence that hung between them was, at times, unbearable.

Wednesday they had to straighten up Professor Thorne's Potions dungeon. Lily would probably enjoy this, Melody thought darkly as she reorganized a cabinet of ingredients. Damn perfectionist Ravenclaws. She shot Mimi a glare, but Mimi was busy scrubbing out cauldrons and didn't notice. Melody sighed and rearranged several bottles of dragon's blood, not really caring where they went just so long as they were arranged neatly. The best thing she had to say about this was that Professor Thorne had locked himself in his office and was leaving them, for the most part, alone.

Melody glanced over at Mimi again, and then bit her lip, thinking. Should I say something? she wondered.

Mimi didn't really look like she wanted to talk, but then she didn't look like she wanted to pick up her cauldron and chuck it at Melody's head, either. Melody hated awkward silences. Moreover, she hated everything she'd done to Mimi and thought that if she could at least get back on speaking terms with her she'd be able to find some way to apologize.

"How's--how's that cauldron coming?" she ventured finally. Mimi's scrubbing halted for a moment, but she didn't look up and continued scrubbing without replying to Melody.

Melody turned back to her cabinet, frowning. She glared at several jars of newt eyes before shoving them to the back. Who wants a bunch of eyeballs in the front of their cabinet, anyway? Melody reasoned, ignoring the front-row label that clearly read, "newt eyes." She glanced over her shoulder at Mimi, but the girl was still scrubbing away, seemingly unperturbed by Melody, newt eyes, awkward silences, and detention.

"Only three days left," Melody tried again. This time Mimi just frowned and scrubbed at her cauldron harder. Melody sighed, annoyed, and shoved the rest of the ingredients into the cabinet without bothering to glance at the labels. She turned around and looked at Mimi, dead-on, and searched for something to say.

"It'll be nice to have the evenings free again, won't it?" she said finally.

Mimi banged her cauldron on the counter and looked Melody straight in the eyes. "Don't talk to me," she advised, before whirling around and rinsing her cauldron in the sink. She dried it with a towel hastily and threw it on top of the other cauldrons, with perhaps a bit more force than necessary.

Melody stared at the ground and tried not to feel like a worthless bug.

She watched a spider scurry across the dungeons, toward Mimi's stack of cauldrons. Mimi spotted it, too, and squished it with the toe of her shoe.

Melody had the distinct and unpleasant notion that she knew exactly how that spider was feeling.

Bellatrix Black and Siegfried Lestrange were in trouble. Between them they'd consumed a pint of Firewhisky, two bottles of champagne, and several shots of vodka, and it wasn't even midnight yet.

"We're gonna die," slurred Siegfried, slumped over the table. "He'ss...gonna...killus."

Bellatrix burped. "Yup," she agreed. "Dead."

"Whichiss kinna funny, considewin...considerin...ng...we're Deatthhhh Eatersss." He tried to laugh but it didn't come out quite right.

"We gotta have some kinna plan," Bellatrix said, nodding, though after a minute she stopped nodding because the world looked kind of blurry when she did. "Sstay still," she told Siegfried, who was still slumped over the table, motionless.

"Sssorry," he replied, not sure what she was talking about.

"We could just...go kill 'em," Bellatrix suggested, burping again.

"You wannago, go ahead," Siegfried mumbled. "I'm too pisss...piss...pissed."

"Not now," she said, trying to roll her eyes at him, but she ended up just staring at the ceiling for a while. "Llllater."

"Befo'...or...affta...he killsss uss?" Siegfried mumbled again, more thickly this time. He sounded like he was drifting towards sleep.

"Beffo, stupid." She stared at him for a while, and he didn't move. She banged her shot glass on the table. "Wakup," she advised, and burped again, loudly.

A grunting, rumbling sort of noise came from Siegfried's end of the table. Snoring. He'd fallen asleep.

Typical, Bellatrix thought. She grabbed the bottle of vodka and stumbled away from the table toward the couch.

She collapsed on the sofa, dropping the bottle of vodka next to it, and plopped her head on a pillow. She tried to take another drink, but she just knocked the bottle over and it rolled away from her, its contents spilling onto the floor. Bellatrix considered getting up and putting a cap on it, but decided it wasn't worth the effort and let her arm fall over the edge of the couch instead, flopping limply against the floor. She stared blearily across the room, trying to evaluate their situation.

The Dark Lord was angry with them, that was certain. They'd failed him. Not just once, either. So many times. Too many times.

Bellatrix and Siegfried were talented killers. They really were. Ruthless, malicious, efficient, intimidating...in short, everything the Dark Lord wanted in a competent Death Eater. However, there was one thing they apparently weren't, and that was thorough.

Siegfried headed the mission to kill an entire Muggle village late last spring, but apparently hadn't investigated well enough, because one of the village's occupants was a young girl attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she hadn't been caught in the attack. The Dark Lord had been quite angry, because he hadn't wanted to attack anyone connected with that particular wizarding school--not yet, anyway. The Dark Lord did not disclose his strategy to the Death Eaters, but Bellatrix suspected that this was because too many of the students at Hogwarts were Muggle- and Mudblood-huggers, and the Dark Lord wanted to take the time to build his forces secretly, so that when the resistance finally came against his growing power he'd be able to stop it quickly. These were just Bellatrix's own musings, of course; who knew what the Dark Lord was really thinking.

The second mistake had been with some Muggle family last summer, when the mother and two daughters had survived--the two daughters they'd known about shortly following the attack, since two Death Eaters had pursued them until they escaped on the Knight Bus, but the mother had been a surprise. They wouldn't even have known about the mother surviving if it hadn't been for Phideus Nott. As an Auror, he was well-placed to provide the Dark Lord with all kinds of confidential Ministry information--even, occasionally, Ministry information he himself wasn't actually privy to. He was one of many loyal spies working for both the Dark Lord and the Ministry.

The next several incidents that displeased the Dark Lord weren't a result of carelessness so much as they were of blatant failure. Bellatrix--finally seasoned enough to coordinate an attack--and Siegfried headed five unsuccessful attempts on the Minister of Magic's life, and the Dark Lord was getting quite annoyed with their inability to complete this task. He'd expected, of course, that it would be a trifle difficult to kill the Minister, but he'd been prepared to wait for two or three attempts at most--not five or six. Now he was getting so aggravated he was prepared to do the killing himself, and if the Dark Lord had to take time out of recruiting his army of Dementors and Giants to off some stupid politician, he'd be very upset.

Normally it was not the Dark Lord's policy to kill his faithful servants, but if they made too many harmful mistakes he didn't really have a choice. It was either that or boot them out of the Death Eaters, and frankly death was a much safer bet than letting someone with too much information wander free. (Unless of course they became a ghost--but the Dark Lord had ways of dealing with that too, which Bellatrix didn't care to think about.)

Bellatrix and Siegfried had to get back in the Dark Lord's favor, and quickly, or they could very well end up dead...which, being only eighteen years old, wasn't something Bellatrix wanted.

If only...they could think of some way...to please him....

There must be...something...we could do... Bellatrix thought sleepily, and she closed her eyes to ponder this.

She didn't open her eyes again until morning, when she awoke with a pounding headache and a very unstable-feeling stomachache.

James felt like he'd been walking for days. Really it had only been four hours, but it felt much longer. Hiking up the side of a mountain, apparently, was not for the faint of heart. Not that James considered himself faint of heart...he was just more accustomed to flying than he was walking, and at the moment his legs were very unhappy with him.

Moody insisted this was all part of Detection and Inquiry practice--apparently they were looking for something--but to James it felt more like Endurance and Survival practice. The other training students, plopped on the ground near James for their twenty-minute break, looked as though they weren't quite cut out for a seven-hour hike, either.

"'S a good thing we only have a couple more days out here, isn't it?" Frank voiced finally. "I don't know that I'm cut out for much more of this."

"It's not so bad," Adam said, trying to sound unaffected by the hike, but his flushed face indicated otherwise.

"Oh, stuff it, Adam," Vivian said, rolling her eyes. "You're just as tired as the rest of us."

"I'm in better shape than you," Adam shot back, taking a drink from his flask.

James and Frank looked at each other wearily. Not again....

"Oooh, you know what, that's it!" Vivian shrieked, throwing down her own flask. "I've had just about enough of you, you little maggot!"

"I'm so afraid," Adam replied, taking another drink.

Vivian slapped his flask away from his mouth and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Look," she said icily. "Just because I am a girl doesn't mean I'm any less qualified for this than you. And just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't hike, or play Quidditch--which, in case you've forgotten, I happen to do quite well! And I don't see where you get off criticizing Slytherins either, just because you have a superiority complex the size of Africa doesn't mean you can go putting down other people's Houses all the time, and you know what, my hair is not frizzy or carrot-like, just because it's red doesn't mean it's ugly, and I don't care how broken-up you're feeling about your stupid Hufflepuff girlfriend leaving you, you shouldn't take that out on other people, and furthermore--"

Vivian continued, but James stopped listening. He'd lost her around the time she started talking about Quidditch.

Apparently there was some kind of history between Adam and Vivian that James wasn't aware of. James looked over at Frank, who just shrugged, looking bewildered.

"--and you know it isn't easy being the only girl on a trip with three boys, especially when one of them's always haranguing you within an inch of your life, I mean, don't you think you could at least try to be nice to me once in a while?" Vivian demanded, halting to take several quick, unsteady breaths.

Moody reappeared just then, and Vivian let go of Adam's shirt, whirling around to collect her flask, which she took a large swig out of before focusing her attention on Moody.

Adam managed to look both floored and furious at the same time.

"We're splitting up now," Moody informed them. He pointed them all in different directions and said he'd be checking up on them all periodically, before Disapparating to who-knew-where. The students looked at each other and then rose without speaking. James shrugged and waved good-bye to all of them before turning and walking in the direction Moody had pointed him.

James didn't know about the other Auror Training Students, but the direction Moody'd pointed out for him really smelled. The smell hadn't been so bad at first, just a little whiff of something unpleasant, but the farther along he walked the worse it got. He seemed to be approaching whatever-it-was that was making the smell, but he couldn't actually see anything in the path ahead of him, so he was slightly concerned.

He glanced around for caves or ledges or sturdy-looking tree branches, trying to figure out where something might've been lurking that had caused the smell...but there was nothing. Eventually it got so bad James brought his shirt up to his nose and tried to breathe through the fabric, hoping that would lessen the stench. It worked--almost--until he tripped and fell, landing, splayed-out, over the very source of the smell.

It was a dead animal. A large, gross, nearly-impossible-to-see dead animal, but it was there all the same.

James scrambled off it quickly, repulsed, and backed away, trying to determine what it was. The creature had a weird, shimmering, hard-to-see kind of fur, which made the animal impossible to see, unless you knew what you were looking for, and...

Holy Mother of Merlin, James thought. "A Demiguise," he breathed. Apparently Care of Magical Creatures class was useful after all.

Demiguises were extremely hard to find, due to the concealing nature of their coats, and were highly prized kills, as their fur could be used to make highly rare and valuable Invisibility Cloaks. Only very skilled and experienced hunters were even able to spot the beasts, and the sales from one pelt of Demiguise fur could make them a very rich man for a very long time.

This beast wasn't killed by any wizard, James decided. But then what could've...?

He puzzled over this for a moment until Moody appeared beside him. "Augh! What's that smell?" Moody demanded, covering his nose with his hand.

"Demiguise," James said, pointing. "Dead."

Moody crouched down and examined the creature. "Well, this isn't at all what we're looking for," he said after a minute. "Wasn't killed by any wizard, that's for sure."

"What d'you think killed it, then?"

Moody considered for a moment. "Probably a yeti," he concluded.

"A yeti?" James repeated, looking around and feeling alarmed. "Is it really safe for us to be here?"

"Yetis usually don't stray this far below the snow cap. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Yeah...except there's a dead Demiguise right there," James reasoned.

"Food must be scarce," Moody reasoned. "But like I said, don't worry. If it is a yeti, got what he came for. There's very little meat left here. The coat, though...it's still mostly intact. That's a valuable pelt, right there."

"What are we going to do with it?" James asked.

Moody looked at him for a moment, sizing him up. "You're a pretty good student, Potter," he said. "If you decide to pursue this line of work, I think you have a good chance at it."

James, shocked, couldn't think of anything to say. He gaped at Moody for a minute. "I...er...yeah," he replied.

Moody laughed. "All right then, Potter," he said. "How'd you feel about having an Invisibility Cloak?"

Lin was in relatively high spirits. She'd just had tea with Hagrid, who was an extremely enjoyable companion, and usually managed to lift Lin's mood, no matter how dark it had become. She'd visited him several times in the past few weeks, and thanked Lily silently each time she did so. Hagrid was a better companion for Lin than even Lily realized--he, too, had lost the people dearest to him, and unlike Lily, had not had any surviving family members to console him.

So, over tea and barely-edible cookies, Lin and Hagrid discussed life, death, cooking, magical creatures, and Anthony Hall. Lin avoided talking about Wendy, even though Hagrid prodded her to every time she visited. Wendy was just too complicated to think about.

Lin entered the school by way of the front doors, and rubbed her arms a bit as she stepped into the Great Hall. Her cloak was warm, but it didn't entirely block the chilly November winds, and she was glad to be back inside where it was warm and welcoming. She saw a group of fourth-year girls descending the stairs for dinner, giggling over something, and glared over at them.

Well, maybe it wasn't exactly welcoming....

Lin straightened and lifted her head, trying to look confident as she brushed past Wendy and her ridiculous new friends to get to the Great Hall, and heard several of the girls make noises of annoyance as she did so.

"Pardon me," Gillian Johnson said, jutting her chin out in the air in a mocking impression of Lin.

Lin glanced back at them to see Lucy Forester, their ringleader, burst into laughter, and her cheeks burned as she saw Wendy joining in.

What happened to her? she wondered, slumping down at the end of the Gryffindor table. I always thought she'd be there for me...

Wendy Thompson had many complicated feelings about Linda Sharp. Sure, she felt bad about laughing at her--Gillian's impression hadn't been that funny--but really, Lin almost brought it upon herself, the way she went around sulking and brooding all the time. Obviously she'd been through something tragic, but if she wasn't even willing to talk about it with people...what did she expect? Wendy glanced toward the end of the table as she sat down next to Lucy. She felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach.

Don't be stupid, she chided herself. You tried. You tried to talk to her...it's not your fault if she's completely closed off....

Her mind flashed back to the conversation she'd tried to have with Lin on the train at the beginning of the year.

"Lin?" Wendy said as they departed from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. "You excited about going back to Hogwarts?"

Lin, who was already staring out the window aimlessly, nodded. "Yeah," she replied.

"I didn't hear from you all summer."

"Yeah. I was...I wasn't allowed to use owls."

"Oh. Where'd you stay?"

Lin turned a dull gaze on Wendy. "Where d'you think I stayed?"

Wendy blinked. "I don't...I don't know, Lin. Am I supposed to know?"

"Orphanage," Lin said finally, her gaze slipping back to the window. "Don't want to talk about it."

"Lin, you should've told me! I bet I could've convinced mum to let you stay with me."

"I couldn't owl anyone, remember?"

Wendy couldn't seem to think of anything to say. "I'm really sorry, Lin, if you want to talk--"

"I don't want to talk about it. Don't worry about it."

"Lin, you're my best friend, how am I supposed to not worry about it?"

"Well there's nothing you can do about it and talking doesn't help, so can't we just talk about something else?"

Wendy had been hurt. What good was having a best friend if you couldn't talk to them about everything? And what was there that Lin couldn't say to Wendy, anyway?

She'd reasoned that maybe Lin just wasn't in the mood...it was, after all, a pretty serious subject, so she switched to talking about Chocolate Frog cards and her summer, but Lin wasn't a very active participant in this conversation, either. Mostly she stared out the window and mumbled things at Wendy every so often to assure her she was still listening...but even then, Wendy didn't really believe she was listening.

Wendy wouldn't have minded so must if this hadn't been the jist of every conversation she'd had with Lin since the start of term.

After a few weeks of trying to talk to Lin, with no luck, Wendy got fed up. She exploded on Lin one day in the library, and stalked off to the common room to recover.

The fight would've just been temporary, just like all their fights, and Wendy expected they would've made up, if it hadn't been for what happened when Wendy got to the common room.

Wendy threw herself into an armchair furiously and crossed her arms, glaring intensely at the wall. Lucy Forester, Gillian Johnson, and Rachel Wood had been sitting on a couch nearby, laughing over something. Lucy turned to Wendy and spoke.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "You look angry."

"It's nothing," Wendy snapped. "Just having a row with one of my friends, thanks."

Lucy exchanged glances with Gillian and Rachel. "Not that weird Lin girl you're always hanging out with?"

Wendy's eyes narrowed. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes, it is with Lin, and she's not weird."

The three girls exchanged glances again. "I don't want to hurt your feelings," Lucy said, "but she is kind of weird. She always looks so...depressed."

"Her whole family died. How'd you be?"

Lucy looked at Gillian significantly, and this time Gillian spoke. "It's not that we're trying to downplay what happened. It was pretty awful."

"But it was four months ago," Lucy finished. "She's not even being social with anybody."

"The other day I tried to talk to her," Rachel chimed in, finally. "I asked her for a quill in Charms, and she ignored me. It was awfully rude."

"She doesn't carry extra quills," Wendy said defensively.

"Oh, we're not saying she's obligated to give people quills all the time," Lucy said quickly. "She just didn't say anything."

"She could have said she didn't have any extra quills," Rachel pointed out. "But she just kept staring straight ahead, as though she didn't hear me."

"I don't think that's acceptable," Lucy said. "Even if you're depressed you should at least be civil to people."

Wendy shrugged. Lin had been zoning out a lot lately...still, it was nothing Lucy and her friends needed to worry about. "She has a lot on her mind. She didn't mean anything by it."

Lucy exchanged glances with her friends again. "Well, you know, it's just our opinion." She turned back to her friends and they whispered together for a minute. "Well, we have something important to do. But if you ever get tired of spending time with her...you're welcome to hang out with us. We know how hard it must be to deal with someone who's being so...anti-social."

Wendy watched Lucy and her friends leave the common room in disbelief. Did that really just happen? she wondered to herself.

She hadn't expected to accept Lucy's offer, but a few more one-sided conversations with Lin and she was starving for some social stimulation.

Her first afternoon with Lucy and her friends was an eye-opener. The girls seemed to know all the gossip about everybody, and within two hours she knew more about the girls in her House--and many of the girls in her year who were in other Houses--than she'd ever really wanted to know. After a solid week of spending time with Lucy, she had a date for Hogsmeade--extremely cute Fifth Year Thomas Moore--and within two weeks, Thomas was her boyfriend. Good things happened when she was around Lucy, and Lin just...dragged her mood down.

Not that she dropped Lin like a hot tamale. She tried to spend time with her, but Lucy just had so many activities planned that it got harder to find time for Lin around her social schedule--she couldn't believe she even had a social schedule--especially since her social activities left little time for essay-writing. Mostly Wendy and Lin did homework together, which wasn't exactly enjoyable, though since Lin didn't talk much it was much more productive than any of their previous study sessions together.

Eventually Wendy started doing her homework with Lucy and her friends, which was more fun, though admittedly her work didn't go quite as quickly, and Lucy, Rachel, and Gillian weren't very good at answering her Potions questions. Actually, Wendy found herself giving most of the advice--especially where Arithmancy was concerned--but didn't suspect Lucy of using her just for homework answers, since she rarely asked about Charms or Herbology and never once asked Wendy to write out answers for her.

Lin and Wendy had a silent and gradual falling-out. By mid-October they weren't even speaking, and by November Wendy stopped worrying about it.

Except for days like this, when they ran into each other...Wendy never said anything outright nasty to her, but...what was the point standing up for her in front of Lucy? It wasn't as though she spoke to Lin anymore anyway, and Lucy wouldn't care about anything Wendy had to say in Lin's defense.

But what was Wendy supposed to do? Sacrifice her entire social life because all Lin wanted to do was sit around and mope?

That would've just been...well...unfair.

Friday was Melody and Mimi's last day of detention together. Melody thought they would've had detention until Saturday, but according to McGonagall Friday was day seven, and seven days was a full week. Melody didn't attempt to argue with this. Mostly she figured McGonagall was tired of asking various professors if they'd take two girls for detention, especially as this last night of detention the girls were serving with McGonagall herself.

McGonagall was having them De-transfigure some of the objects the younger students had been working on. Mimi was turning a pile of needles back into toothpicks, and Melody had a cage of rats to turn back into teacups. After they were finished with this, McGonagall had informed them, they were going to apply Anti-Cheating Spells to a batch of quills, and then test to make sure their spells were accurate. When they were finished with that they had to go apologize to several of the portraits in the Charms corridor, and then they'd be done with their week's worth of detentions.

An awkward silence still hung between the girls, but Melody couldn't think of a way to break it without earning a sharp glare from McGonagall, who was sitting behind her desk grading a batch of essays and making sure the girls didn't screw up the De-transfiguration too badly.

Melody sighed and grabbed another rat from the cage, muttering the spell under her breath a little lazily. The rat squirmed for a minute before transfiguring into a pretty blue teacup, which Melody placed with her pile of variously patterned and shaped teacups. She'd always been rather good at turning teacups to rats, and vice versa, and enjoyed the practice, even if it was quite a few years below her skill level. At least it was something to keep her mind off Mimi's stony silence.

Seven days of detention and we haven't even had a conversation, Melody thought glumly, tossing a yellow teacup onto the pile. Well...so much for keeping her mind off it. You're a bloody coward, that's what you are, she told herself, frowning and tossing another teacup onto the pile. She cringed when she heard the distinctive tinkling sound of breaking china, and McGonagall looked up from her papers, irritated.

"Do have a care, Miss Cauldwell," she advised. "I don't want to have to replace my teacups more than once in a year."

"Sorry, Professor," Melody mumbled, handling her next several teacups more delicately.

"That's much better," McGonagall said approvingly. "Now, if you girls can behave yourselves for a few minutes, I have something I must deliver to Professor Dumbledore." Her tone suggested that she expected nothing but the best behavior from both girls, and she left without waiting for a response.

Melody glanced over at Mimi after she'd gone and tried to think of something appropriate to say. Mimi felt her gaze and looked up. Melody opened her mouth, but Mimi shook her head and spoke first.

"Don't," she said. "Just...don't say anything."

Melody stared at her for a moment, hurt, and then spoke anyway. "Damn it, Mimi, how am I supposed to apologize if you won't let me say anything to you?"

"Apologize?" Mimi repeated in disbelief. "After everything that's happened, what makes you think I'd even accept an apology from you? Who says I even want your apology?"

"I would've thought that's about the only thing you'd want to hear from me," Melody said softly, staring at the teacup on her desk.

"Well, I think it's a bit late for an apology," Mimi said coldly. "If you wanted to do that, you should've done it a week ago."

"Would you have listened then, either?" Melody asked. "Every time I saw you, you just glared at me."

"Yes, well, it wasn't as though you'd given me a reason to suspect that you felt anything other than perfectly satisfied with your lying, boyfriend-stealing self."

Melody sputtered at her. "Well--well--first of all," she managed finally, "I am not a boyfriend stealer."

Mimi's eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. "You dragged my boyfriend away from the Halloween Ball to snog with him in a deserted classroom. Which part of that makes you not a boyfriend stealer?"

"The part where Sirius didn't want me," Melody said, very quietly.

"Bullocks," Mimi spat. "He told me just that afternoon he wanted you."

Melody's eyes flew up and locked on Mimi's, shocked. "What?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," Mimi said tightly, turning back to her pile of needles. "I'd rather not talk to you anymore, either."

"You can't just say something like that and leave me hanging!"

"Maybe I can. I'd say you deserve a little torment."

Melody stared at her in disbelief. "What, you think I've gone through the last two weeks without any torment? Mimi...I lost two of my best friends in the same night, because of some stupid, idiotic thing that I did, and there isn't a minute in my day when I don't feel wretched about it."

Mimi looked at Melody and considered. "Really?"

"Yes," Melody replied, her voice raw. "I'm miserable."

Mimi sized her up for a moment, and then nodded. "Good," she said, and turned back to her needles again.

Melody stared at her helplessly. "Aren't you even going to let me try to apologize?"

"Don't see a good reason to," Mimi replied. "And anyway, none of this is anything more than you deserve."

"Are you always this--this--horrible to people who make you mad?"

"Make me mad? I don't think that quite covers what happened."

"Fine, then. I was horrible, and I stabbed you in the back."

"That's better."

"But--honestly, Mimi, don't you care at all that I feel horribly about it and want to apologize to you?"

Mimi shook her head, staring decisively at the ground. "What's an apology worth anyway? It doesn't change what happened."

"I know that! But maybe it can change what's happening now!" Melody cried, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Oh? And what's happening now?"

"We're fighting again! We're--we're--shooting our friendship to hell over a stupid bloke!"

Mimi stared at the floor. "You know," she said softly. "It always sounds stupid when people talk about it that way. Girls fighting with each other over some stupid bloke. But you know what? They never remember to mention just how shoddy it feels to have one of your best friends stab you in the back!"

"Oh, why do you care anyway?" Melody shrieked back. "You know, I never understood why you wanted to be Sirius's girlfriend in the first place, because before the beginning of this year you expressed no interest in him as anything other than a mate. And you knew perfectly well how I felt about Sirius, so don't try to paint yourself like you're so innocent and victimized!"

"Well, looks like your 'apology' nonsense just flew out the window, now didn't it?" Mimi snapped, glaring at Melody full-on. "But don't you dare try to make me out to be the mean one. You know what's funny about your little infatuation with Sirius? How you never told Sirius about it. So don't blame me for his actions just because you're too scared to tell people how you feel about them."

"Yeah, well, is it any wonder why I was afraid? Look what happened when I finally did tell him!"

"D'you expect me to have sympathy for you or something? You know what, next time you decide you're going to confess your deepest feelings to the boy you fancy, why don't you WAIT UNTIL HE'S AVAILABLE FIRST?"

"Oh, thanks for the helpful advice," Melody shot back. "And hey, guess what? I've got some helpful advice for you, too! How about the next time you go out with a boy, you pick one that you ACTUALLY FANCY?"

Mimi did not appreciate this statement. She didn't appreciate it so much, in fact, that she picked up a handful of needles and chucked them at Melody viciously.

Melody shrieked and shielded her face with her arms, feeling the prick of several needles biting into her skin. "That was low," she growled, brushing the needles away angrily.

"Well, so was your advice!" Mimi shrieked.

"Well so was yours!" Melody shrieked back, chucking a rat at her. Mimi squealed and jumped out of her chair to avoid the animal.

"You want to fight?" Mimi asked. "Fine!" She picked up a handful of toothpicks and hurled them at Melody, who ducked and grabbed several teacups, which she tossed back at Mimi with great force and horrible aim. They smashed against the wall quite fantastically and made such a racket that all the rats began chattering angrily in their cage. The rat Melody had thrown scurried across the room and into the hall, unwilling to take any more abuse.

"This isn't fair!" Mimi cried, stomping her foot. "You always have better weapons than me!" she hurled another batch of toothpicks at Melody, one of which pricked Melody rather severely in the nostril, which hurt more than she expected.

"Yes, well," Melody replied, brushing off the toothpicks. "It's not my fault you're horrible at dueling."

"But--but even now! How are toothpicks and needles supposed to compete with rats and teacups?"

"Hey, don't downplay the power of needles and toothpicks. You could poke my eye out, you know."

"Yes, well, I'm not sure I'd feel too bad about it at the moment, actually," Mimi replied, fuming, and threw several more needles in Melody's direction. Melody hopped over her desk and hid behind the pile of teacups for protection, crushing several of them in the process.

McGonagall walked in on them like this, Mimi throwing handfuls of toothpicks and needles at Melody, and Melody cowering behind a pile of teacups. Occasionally Melody would pick up a teacup and chuck it at her opponent, but for the most part she missed fantastically, which created a rather interesting array of teacup remains against the far wall.

"Ladies!" McGonagall yelled when she'd finally processed what was happening in her office. "That is enough!"

The girls froze and dropped whatever they were holding--in Melody's case, a teacup, which shattered against the floor and infuriated the Professor further.

"Twenty points from both your Houses, clean this mess up now, and DETENTION FOR ANOTHER WEEK--SEPARATELY!"

Mimi and Melody stared at each other for a moment unhappily, and then silently went about cleaning McGonagall's office.

Instantly more regret flooded Melody's head. Damn it, she cursed herself, scraping up the remains of several teacups and tossing them in a rubbish bin. How do I even begin to apologize for this?

Across the room, Mimi was having thoughts of her own. I could have avoided that, she admitted, picking handfuls of toothpicks off the floor. I should've just...let it go. She sighed and sat back on her heels, examining the mess they'd made.

Something struck her at that moment, as she saw Melody examining the floor on her hands and knees, searching for bits of shattered teacup.

Wow, she thought to herself suddenly, staring down at the toothpicks in her own hand. She ran over the events of the past two weeks in her head, and then shook it back and forth several times, thinking. Melody was right, she realized, blinking at the floor in shock.

This has all just been so...so...

...stupid.